‘He kisses and caresses the marble he sculpts’ remarked a colleague describing Antonio Canova’s artistry. We do not, however, have much marble in Lucca’s current ‘Cavallerizza’ exhibition relating this supreme artist to the city’s neo-classical past. Instead we have a breath-taking sequence of plaster statues, twelve of which have never been seen before, interspersed with paintings from the same age. Among these canvases are those by fine Lucca eighteenth century artists Pompeo Batoni, Stefano Tofanelli and Canova’s friend Bernardino Nocchi.
All in all there are one hundred exhibits beautifully displayed and well-documented with a personal audio guide included in the admission ticket.
Canova always evolved his sculptures in clay. The original form was then increased to the figure’s final size and cast in durable plaster. The majority of items in this exhibition, imaginatively curated by art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, are from the museum in Canova’s home town of Possagno in the Veneto region where the artist was born in 1757 and where he lies in the pantheon-like church he designed for his funeral in 1822.Considered by classicists as too sensual and by romantics as too cold Canova developed a dazzling career and became a much sought-after sculptor. In London, for instance, the Victoria and Albert Museum houses the ethereal ‘Three Graces’ commissioned by the Duke of Bedford. In the Cavallerizza is the original plaster cast:
The stairwell of the Duke of Wellington’s London home encloses a heroic nude of Napoleon I. Lucca’s major connections with Bonaparte are represented at the exhibition by portraits of his sister, princess of the tree-walled city, Elisa Baciocchi.
Derbyshire’s Chatsworth house contains the sixth duke of Devonshire’s commission of the eternally sleeping Endymion, the shepherd beloved of the moon goddess Selene. I was quite taken by the pert cirneco dell’Etna keeping watch at his feet.
Again Lucca has the original plaster cast. The contrasting textures between the lunar shine of the youth’s skin and the rough rocks on which he lies is stunning and points to Canova’s supreme skill.
Another, somewhat cheeky, hunting dog appears behind the exquisite statue of Venus and Adonis commissioned by the Marquis Francesco Berio for his Neapolitan garden temple. Venus is bidding goodbye to her lover who will shortly meet his fate by being gored by a savage boar during a hunt. Again Canova’s virtuosity in the contrast between the dog’s coarse coat and the pair’s smoothest of skins is stunning.
I once opined that Canova was a cold fish. Not anymore. His classical figures are not effete representations of ancient gods and goddesses but real people of flesh and blood. There is utter sensuality in those curves, unspoken words of passion in those glances and smiles. True, Roman and Greek statuaries were originally painted in bright colours but Canova manages to evoke ethereal shades through the way he textures his luminous surfaces.
Although a visit to Possagno is a must there are at least two fine ‘gipsoteche’ – plaster-cast galleries – one can visit within easy reach of Lucca. Pescia’s ‘Libero Andreotti’ is a gallery in the ancient Palazzo del Podestà and contains over two hundred plaster casts from the studio of the Art Nouveau sculptor Libero Andreotti.
At Pietrasanta there’s the fascinating ‘Gipsoteca Luisi’ displaying an incredible variety of plaster casts representative of artistic activity in the town since the eighteenth century.
‘Canova and Neo-Classicism in Lucca’ is the third exhibition hosted by the Cavallerizza in Piazzale Verdi and runs until 29 September 2024. It’s open every day, including Mondays, from 10 am to 8 pm with last admissions at 6.45 pm.
Previous exhibitions included ‘Il Museo della Follia’ and ‘I Pittori della Luce’. There is absolutely no doubt that Lucca has gained an excellent exhibition space equal to Pisa’s Palazzo Blu and Florence’s Palazzo Strozzi.
But what was the Cavallerizza before it became a well-restored exhibition space? Lucca’s ‘Cavallerizza Ducale’ was built between 1821 and 1823 for government use for the Ministry of Public Education which used it as a riding stable for the students of the Royal College and the cadets’ military corps. From a historical point of view, the structure is transitional between the governments of Elisa Buonaparte with her husband Felice Baciocchi and that of Maria Luisa Borbone, daughter of the King of Spain. The building was started by Lazzarini, technician of the Baciocchi family’s trusted architect and completed by Nottolini who was employed by Maria Luisa di Borbone.
