Letters, With Notes - Tapa blanda

Reseña del editor

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1845. Excerpt: ... CANOVA. CANOVA, having been commissioned by an English nobleman to make a statue like the " Hebe," which he had just finished, the block from which he had chiselled the same was of a most beautiful piece of Grecian marble, white as the snow itself, until he had chiselled one of the legs, when, behold! a large black vein unexpectedly made its appearance, (which naturally very much diminished both its value and beauty), forming something like a garter below the knee, or, as if the leg had been broken. Canova (not for the value of the price of the statue, being naturally very disinterested, but having been limited to time as to the delivery of the same,) felt so completely mortified, that he left his study, and, as we were upon very friendly terms, came to breakfast, where he found us engaged in a musical morning party, with the late beautiful Duchess of L,f &c. When the concert and refreshments were over, he invited our party to visit his study, which was a treat not generally Vide Appendix B. + Lanti. granted, in which were a considerable number of ancient Grecian female statues, most of which had either collars, beads, or a kind of string round their necks. He accounted for this by saying, that most of these statues had been originally deprived of their heads, which (when the Romans conquered Greece) had been sawed off, and those of their empresses, mothers, daughters, and other relatives placed in their stead as a mark of respect and veneration to their own kindred, and to cover the joined heads, the statuaries had thought proper to hide the same, by putting on the above ornaments, consequently we have seen "Modern heads upon ancient shoulders." Canova when at Vienna, and in the zenith of his celebrity, courted and feted by all distinguished for birth, ...