October 13, 2022 marked the bicentenary of Canova's death. He was brought into contact with Napoleon twice: in 1802 and 1810. He was an objective but not servile servant of Bonaparte and later of Napoleon.
Lionel Marquis / Historian
In September 1802, Bonaparte was thirty-three years old, Canova forty-five. The two men knew each other. Bonaparte was aware of the sculptor's reputation through the works he had seen in Italy, some of which had been taken to adorn the Louvre National Museum (1). And Canova knew Bonaparte for these reasons, feeling no particular sympathy for the man who plundered the artistic treasures of his country and ended the independence of the Republic of Venice, which paid him a pension, forcing him to "emigrate" to his hometown, Possagno (2).
The artist, worn out by work, was already an old man – Napoleon and many of his marshals would die barely in their fifties (3) – when he received the invitation to go to Paris to meet the First Consul, whose policy of reconciliation was beginning to take effect, except in certain "united departments" (4). The Concordat and the Peace of Amiens with England were signed (5), and on August 2, the censitary vote decided to appoint Bonaparte consul for life. Three very important elements in French politics at the time, which Bonaparte could not fail to mark with a white stone. White like a sculpture by Canova. And sculptures, in 1802, Canova executed no less than ten (6).
A prolific artist
In 1773, Canova was sixteen years old and created his first work, Orpheus and Eurydice, which, according to opinions, was inspired by Bernini. Quickly, he achieved success and fortune, and settled in Rome in 1779. He was twenty-two years old at the time. In 1802, Canova was a man honored by the public and the authorities – especially Pope Pius VII – who saw in him the defender of Catholic values in a "return to the old" in the face of the anti-religious policy pursued by France since the end of the Ancien Régime. And if the sculptor was honored by the esteem of the pope, it was because he sculpted the funerary monuments of two of his predecessors: Clement XIII, pope from 1758 until his death in 1769, a funerary monument completed in 1792, and that of Clement XIV, successor to the previous one, who died in 1774 and was completed in 1787. In 1796, while Canova was working on the statue of Ferdinand IV (completed in 1819, Naples, Museo Nazionale) as well as the Penitent Magdalene (Genoa, Palazzo Bianco), French troops invaded the "Legations" (7) and Pope Pius VI was forced to sign the armistice of Bologna (June 23, 1796), whose eighth article imposed on him the surrender of a hundred works of art, exacerbated at Tolentino (8).
Canova was not only a sculptor but also a painter. From 1792 to 1799, he executed no less than twenty-two paintings, of which he was very dissatisfied. Another element played in favor of the sculptor in this "reconquest of faith": the memory of the ephemeral Roman Republic which, until its fall in 1799, organized a hunt for priests, thus sharpening the revolt against the authorities and favoring Neapolitan intervention. Naples remained under the rule of a Bourbon supported by an all-powerful clergy. And Canova's works from this period are imbued with this intention.
The meeting of two giants
In Possagno, his hometown, where he had been living since May 1798, Canova was pleased in March 1800 with the election to the pontificate of Pius VII. The latter immediately desired to receive in audience the man who had been depicted to him as a revolutionary, an ardent and dangerous Jacobin. Instead of this undesirable individual, he was struck by the humanity of the man in front of him, by his language that was both serene and frank. So, the relationship with the sovereign pontiff became more intimate; it was Canova himself who suggested to the pope the Motu Proprio of 1802, which prohibited taking ancient monuments out of Rome.
On August 10, 1802, Canova was appointed Inspector General of Fine Arts of Rome and the Pontifical State, a position accompanied by a pension of 400 silver écus, while in the previous spring, while he was finishing the statue Creugante and Damosseno and at the insistence of the French ambassador François Cacault (9) – who was also an art lover – as well as the secretary of the embassy, Canova finally accepted to go to Paris to, initially, paint then sculpt a statue of Bonaparte. However, after some reflection, he refused the invitation of the First Consul, pretexting that his various and varied ailments did not allow him such a long journey. In fact, it is the man he does not want to meet.
It took the intervention of the pope to change his mind because the latter feared that his refusal would harm the diplomatic relations just reestablished between the Vatican and France and at the same time, hoped that Canova would serve as an ambassador to induce the First Consul to initiate a more conservative Catholic policy. Pope Pius VII also hoped that Canova would persuade Bonaparte to return to the Vatican all or part of the works of art stolen by the Treaty of Tolentino, which would not happen until after 1815.
On September 22, 1802, Canova set out for Paris. There were three of them in the carriage dispatched by the First Consul: Canova, Giambattista Sartori (10), and a servant. After two weeks of travel, the artist and his entourage arrived in Paris on October 5. In the French capital, it was first to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Caprara Montecuccoli (1733-1810), papal legate in Paris at the request of Bonaparte (11), a few months earlier (12), that he presented his letters of credence and accompanied him to present them to Bourrienne, then secretary of the First Consul. Meanwhile, the travelers were housed in a luxurious apartment at the Hôtel de Montmorency (13), and at dawn on October 7, the artist was ready. He presented himself to the Minister of the Interior, who sent him directly to the Château de Saint-Cloud (14), one of Bonaparte's residences, where Bourrienne and Duroc were waiting for him. "Hurry! The First Consul is waiting!" Quickly, they climbed the grand staircase, Canova leading the way. Out of breath, they indicated to him a golden door leading to a resplendent salon with mirrors. At the back, a man dressed in an anonymous gray frock coat walked, thoughtful, with his hands behind his back. "First Consul, we present to you the sculptor, Chevalier Canova."
Without waiting for Bonaparte to invite him to speak, Canova looks the head of state straight in the eyes and says, "Mr. First Consul must excuse me; I did not recognize his physiognomy; obviously, the portraits I know are not very accurate... I am used to speaking simply, and courtly tricks are unfamiliar to me, and for that, I apologize as well." Bonaparte smiles and replies, "I am not interested in ceremony and rather look at portraits that are not very accurate. I have brought the most skilled sculptor to finally have a faithful portrait. Welcome to Paris!" He then shakes his hand and invites him to take a seat in one of the golden armchairs in the salon, while with an imperious glance, he dismisses Bourrienne and Duroc. Sitting across from Canova, he asks him about his journey, his health, and the situation in Italy. With respectful frankness, Canova responds and even goes so far as to ask him to lay down his arms. Then the First Consul comes to the reason for the invitation: he asks if he accepts to make his statue. "In what posture?" the sculptor replies. "In whatever posture you desire," Bonaparte answers, "to geniuses, no law is prescribed." Canova's kindness makes a strong impression on Bonaparte, who notes that whenever he starts talking about Pope Pius VII, tears come to his eyes.
Modeling Sessions
Three days after this first meeting, a messenger comes to fetch Canova. Bonaparte is ready to pose. The latter, very satisfied with the sculptor, remains in his company with pleasure, in the presence of Joséphine towards whom, Canova writes to his friend, "he [Bonaparte] always showed great kindness, embracing her and holding her close to him as I would with my dear half." Canova talks with Joséphine, even has coffee with her, and together they establish that the most suitable light to immortalize the First Consul is that of the garden. And while Canova sculpts, Bonaparte, in the pose taken, dispatches mail and reads official reports. Often, Joséphine joins them, and together they joke around, as she knows how to put her husband in a good mood while he shows himself gruff and irritated with courtiers.
In five sessions, the sketch is almost finished. But on the sixth, Bonaparte shows himself almost bored, preoccupied as he is with his upcoming trip (15). However, he insists on seeing Canova again upon his return. This the latter refuses, despite the insistence of the First Consul. During Bonaparte's two-week absence, Canova dines with David and Gérard, a friend of the painter, takes the opportunity to have his portrait painted; he goes to greet Fontaine whom he knows from Rome, visits the national museum. The sculptor is also a guest of Murat at the Neuilly Castle. Joséphine desires to possess a masterpiece by the artist, and for her, Canova sculpts a replica of his statue Hebe that he created in Venice in 1796-1798 (Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie).
On November 30, 1802, after bidding farewell to Joséphine, Canova departs. He is eager to return to Rome and his studio. In a padded crate, the plaster head of Bonaparte is part of the journey. On the way back to Rome, in Lyon, he is hosted by Cardinal Fesch; in Turin, he stays with the Marquise de Priero, now Piazza San Carlo; in Milan, he is received by Murat and Francesco Melzo d'Eril, Vice President of the Italian Republic. As for the plaster bust of Napoleon from 1802, it can be admired in Possagno, at the Canova Museum. It is unknown whether the artist made a marble version...
The Second Parisian Stay
At the end of August 1810, Canova receives two letters. The first is signed Duroc: the Emperor invites him to Paris to execute the statue of the new Empress Marie-Louise. The second is from Daru, general superintendent, who writes to him that "His Majesty wishes to see you in Paris, either temporarily or permanently." In reality, Duroc knows that Napoleon wants to have Canova on hand because he wishes to entrust him with the decoration and embellishment of all public buildings. "No one has more taste than him," writes Napoleon, "and no one can give better advice on painting, sculpture, and architecture." Canova, who hates feeling constrained, replies: "I will execute the portrait of the Empress upon my arrival in Paris and will do so as many times as necessary for His Majesty to find it to his satisfaction, and then return to Rome and my studio and think about executing the statue of the Empress and all the commissions begun... the amount of ongoing business does not allow me to be away from my studio for too long, under penalty of great disorder."
On October 11, Canova and his half-brother return to Paris (17). It is on October 13, around noon, that Duroc presents him to Napoleon, who is having lunch with Marie-Louise. Immediately, the Emperor notices that the artist has lost weight. "It's the work," replies the sculptor. Napoleon then speaks to him about the colossal statue that represents him and that he would have preferred to see dressed (16). On October 15, Canova begins to model the features of Marie-Louise, and this takes place over several sessions, "during which I always had the opportunity to speak with the Emperor on various subjects, because it was always at the time of his lunch, and then he was free from any occupation [...]."
On October 29 (18), the plaster model is completed, and Canova takes it to Fontainebleau, while the Empress plays with her ladies. She then adopts the same attitude to allow her entourage to judge it better. For Canova, it is time to leave. On November 7, as he prepares to leave the capital to return to Rome, he is surprised to learn that the discussions with the Emperor have been heard, and the artist's requests have been granted: at the Academy of San Luca in Rome, Napoleon grants 100,000 francs, of which 75,000 are for the restoration of ancient monuments; 300,000 francs are also allocated, with 200,000 for archaeological excavations and 100,000 for supporting artists.
Canova arrives in Rome at the end of December 1810. He will never see Napoleon again. However, in 1813, he is invited to Naples by Queen Caroline and Murat to make their portrait. As for the statue of Marie-Louise, it is in Parma, at the Galleria Nazionale.
(1) In 1802, the Louvre was renamed the Napoleon Museum, and its director was none other than Vivant Denon. It is in Paris that the works taken from conquered lands are exhibited. In 1802, Bonaparte decided to make the Louvre a "national museum," by expelling the artists who still lived there. In 1806, Fragonard died there. He was the last tenant of the palace.
(2) A city in the Veneto region, about 67 km northeast of Vicenza.
(3) Augereau was fifty-three years old at his death, Masséna fifty-eight, Davout fifty-three, and Suchet fifty-five.
(4) The "reunited departments" are the nine departments created following the conquest of the Austrian Netherlands and the bishopric of Liège in 1795. Some of them accepted the new authorities and conscription with difficulty, the Concordat, and the anti-religious policy pursued until then.
(5) Respectively on July 15, 1801, and March 25, 1802.
(6) These include Dédale et Icare (1779), Thésée et le Minotaure (1781-1783), Amour et Psyché (1787-1793), Adonis couronné par Vénus (1789), Vénus et Adonis (1789-1794), Madeleine pénitente (1793-1796), Hébé (1796), the episodes of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid (1787-1792), Hercule et Lichas (1795-1815), Creugante (1795-1806), Damosseno (1795-1806), Persée triomphant (1797-1801), and the funerary monument to Marie-Christine d'Autriche (1798-1805).
(7) The Legations is the name of the region of Bologna and Romagna when they were part of the Papal States. These were integrated into the Cisalpine Republic.
(8) On February 19, 1797. The Pope had to pay the sum of 15,000,000 French livres tournois, of which 10,000,000 were in cash, and 5,000,000 in diamonds and other precious effects, out of about 16,000,000 which remained due according to Article IX of the armistice signed in Bologna on 3 Messidor year IV (June 23, 1796).
(9) François Cacault (1743-1805), favorable to the 18th Brumaire, became a plenipotentiary minister and then ambassador to Rome, participating in the negotiations of the Concordat. He was replaced in 1804 by Cardinal Fesch and retired to Clisson, where he created a museum.
(10) Giovanni Battista Sartori (1775-1858) was Canova's half-brother. Born from his mother's second marriage, he lived alongside the artist from 1801, when he joined him in Rome, and became his secretary.
(11) He was one of the few cardinals to vote in favor of signing the Treaty of Tolentino.
(12) From August 24, 1801, to July 6, 1809, the date of the pope's arrest.
(13) It is now the Hotel Thiroux de Lailly, at No. 5 rue de Montmorency.
(14) The castle, built in 1500, was the scene of the coup d'état of Brumaire. Became the residence of the Bonapartes at the time of the elevation to the Empire, it was burned by French cannons during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
(15) On October 29, at 6 a.m., the consular procession leaves Saint-Cloud for Normandy. It returns on November 13. On November 2, General Leclerc, Napoleon's brother-in-law, dies of yellow fever in Saint-Domingue.
(16) The statue, begun in 1803, was completed in 1806. Placed in the Louvre, but not exhibited to the public (the Emperor is depicted naked), it was sold for 100,000 francs by Louis XVIII to Wellington. In 1811, a reduced-size bronze copy was made on the orders of Eugène de Beauharnais and placed in 1813 in the courtyard of the Brera Museum in Milan.
(17) From this stay, Canova left a booklet, "Conversations of Napoleon with Canova," which was published in Paris in 1824, two years after the sculptor's death.
(18) Canova speaks of November 4 (Conversation with Napoleon, p. 30).
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