Canova and Color

We cordially invite you to the lecture from the cycle Collegium historiae artium, which will be given by Moira Mascotto (Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova) on the topic of Canova and Colour: The Dialogue Between Painting and Sculpture.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday, October 8, 2025 at 4.30 pm in the Institute of Art History CAS, room 117, Husova 4, Prague 1.

Antonio Canova, universally recognized as the greatest sculptor of Neoclassicism, was also a painter: an aspect of his creative activity still little studied, yet fundamental to understanding the complexity and richness of his artistic language and working method. Painting, in fact, was not for him a secondary exercise, but rather a field of research and experimentation complementary to sculpture, where he could freely explore questions of light, colour, and matter.

This paper aims to highlight the constant dialogue between painting and sculpture in Canova’s work, showing how the two arts nourished each other and how each was an integral part of his creative process. Through the analysis of selected works it will be possible to follow the artist’s inventive path, from the first pictorial intuition to the full development in marble form. Particular attention will also be given to recent diagnostic investigations and restoration projects, which have made it possible to study in depth the techniques used by the artist.

From this interplay between painting and sculpture clearly emerges the figure of Canova as a “sculptorpainter,” capable of transferring pictorial suggestions into marble and of giving sculpted surfaces a luminous vibration that makes them alive and sensitive. In this constant dialogue between the arts lies his ideal of universal, harmonious, and timeless beauty, which still speaks powerfully to our eyes and sensibility today.