19TH CENTURY ROMAN SCULPTOR
Pauline Borghese Bonaparte
Plaster and marble dust, cm 50x95x27,5
One of the best known sculptures in the repertoire of Antonio Canova (Possagno, 1757 – Venice, 1822) is the marble statue of Pauline Borghese Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister and wife of the Roman prince Camillo Borghese.
The princess is immortalised lying on an Empire-style sofa, her face framed by a refined hairstyle, with her torso in an upright position leaning against the backrest, naked almost to the groin and her legs veiled by a light fabric.
Pauline is depicted as Venus with the apple of victory in her left hand, symbolising the goddess’s triumph in the contest with Juno and Minerva to decide who was the most beautiful on Olympus. Taken from the Fubulae of Gaius Julius Hyginus (Fabulae 92), this mythological episode was one of the most reproduced in the history of art, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries, drawing on ancient myths.
With his transfiguration of Pauline into Venus, Canova celebrates the glory of the Bonaparte family with his sculpture and makes it an attraction for Romans and visitors alike.
The sculpture in our collection is a pleasing reproduction of the artist’s sculptural composition, rendered here in plaster with a slightly aged marble dust finish.
