Back in May, my family and I visited the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and enjoyed, amongst other things, its impressive collection of sculptures, including this beautiful piece from the great Italian neoclassical sculptor, Antonio Canova. The Three Graces were daughters of Zeus and companions to the Muses, and were a celebrated subject in classical literature and art. They are Thalia (youth and beauty), Euphrosyne (mirth), and Aglaia (elegance), and the goddesses are depicted huddled together, nude, hair braided and held atop their heads in a knot, the three slender figures melding into one in their embrace.
The sculpture is carved from a single slab of white marble. Canova’s assistants would have roughly hewn out the marble, leaving Canova to perform the final carving and shaping of the stone to highlight the Graces’ soft flesh. It was commissioned by John Russel, 6th Duke of Bedford, who visited Canova at his studio in Rome in 1814. Bedford was captivated by the group of the Three Graces which Canova had carved for the Empress Josephine, the estranged wife of Napoleon Bonaparte (“I frankly declare”, he is reported to have said, “that I have seen nothing in ancient or modern sculpture that has given me more pleasure than this piece of work”). Josephine had died in May of that year, and the Duke offered to buy the sculpture from Canova, but Josephine’s son claimed it (and that version is now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg) so Bedford commissioned a new one.
The completed statue was installed at the Duke’s home, Woburn Abbey. An 1822 catalogue of the sculpture at Woburn summed up the appeal of the work: “in the constrained flexibility with which their arms are entwined round each other; in the perfect symmetry of their limbs, in the delicacy of detail, and exquisiteness of finish, in the feet and hands; in that look of living softness given to the surface of the marble, which looks as if it would yield to the touch…this great sculptor has shown the utmost delicacy and judgement”.
It is indeed remarkable to get “up close and personal” with a great sculpture like this and marvel at the skill and delicacy required to achieve such an exquisite finish from a block of stone. Canova’s other masterpiece, Cupid and Psyche in the Louvre, elicits the same admiration.
