page_title: Antonio Canova
section_title: The Three Graces (1814–1817)
hierarchical_section_title: Antonio Canova / Works / The Three Graces (1814–1817)
caption_attribution_description: Three Graces - sculpture work by Antonio Canova (taken from IT wiki)
context_page_description: Antonio Canova was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists, his sculpture was inspired by the Baroque and the classical revival, and has been characterised as having avoided the melodramatics of the former, and the cold artificiality of the latter.
context_section_description: John Russell, the 6th Duke of Bedford, commissioned a version of the now famous work.  He had previously visited Canova in his studio in Rome in 1814 and had been immensely impressed by a carving of the Graces the sculptor had made for the Empress Josephine.  When the Empress died in May of the same year he immediately offered to purchase the completed piece, but was unsuccessful as Josephine's son Eugène claimed it (his son Maximilian brought it to St. Petersburg, where it can now be found in the Hermitage Museum). Undeterred, the Duke commissioned another version for himself.
  The sculpting process began in 1814 and was completed in 1817.  Finally in 1819 it was installed at the Duke's residence in Woburn Abbey.  Canova even made the trip over to England to supervise its installation, choosing for it to be displayed on a pedestal adapted from a marble plinth with a rotating top.  This version is now owned jointly by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Galleries of Scotland, and is alternately displayed at each.
caption: The Three Graces
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