Attributed to Lorenzo Bartolini (1777-1850), after Antonio Canova (1757-1822)

Boisgirard-Antonini sale, Paris, 1st July 2009, lot 74;

Tomasso Brothers, Leeds;

Acquired from the above.

Napoléon. Antiquity to Empire, Robiliant + Voena & Stair Sainty, London, 18 June-30 July 2015.

In the autumn of 1802, the most celebrated sculptor of his time finally responded to the repeated invitations of the man who then dominated Europe. In Paris, Canova needed only five sittings to model from life a portrait of Napoleon I in the “heroic” type — a work that was to enjoy extraordinary critical acclaim. Despite the Italian sculptor’s initial reluctance to portray the man who had brought down his homeland, and after several attempts to postpone the task, the meeting of these two towering figures of modern history proved, against all expectations, a success. Their lively conversations revealed a mutual respect and admiration (see O’Brien, op. cit., pp. 356–357).

A first plaster model, of which two examples survive — one in the Accademia di San Luca, Rome, and the other in the Gipsoteca Canova, Possagno — depicts Napoleon in the consular uniform of the Republic (fig. 1). The leader gazes intently straight ahead, his short hair slightly tousled. Canova later adapted this portrait into a bare-shouldered bust, maintaining the perfectly frontal pose of the face. The sculptor then turned the Emperor’s head slightly to the right and incorporated it into a full-length nude figure, the monumental marble known as Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, now in Apsley House, London (fig. 2). The more dynamic attitude of this latter version was subsequently reinterpreted in another bust, which became the iconic portrait of Napoleon — represented here in this magnificent example.

Several marble versions of the model are regarded as autograph works or direct productions from Canova’s workshop. Notable examples are preserved in Milan, Rouen, Angers, Malmaison, Fontainebleau, Compiègne, Washington, and Florence (see Bosi, op. cit., p. 381; Kosareva, op. cit., p. 306). The bust that remained in the sculptor’s studio at his death — considered by some to be the finest — was sold by his half-brother to the Marchioness of Abercorn and now belongs to the collection of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth.

At the initiative of Elisa Baciocchi, Napoleon’s sister and future Grand Duchess of Tuscany, the sculpture workshops of the Carrara quarries, under the direction of Lorenzo Bartolini, produced this “valorous” portrait in numerous versions for wide dissemination, glorifying the Emperor and the Napoleonic dynasty. According to one estimate, more than twelve thousand busts of the model, of varying size and quality, were produced in the Carrara workshops (see Bosi, op. cit., p. 381).

The remarkable quality of execution of the present bust, in a perfect state of preservation, justifies its attribution to Lorenzo Bartolini. Particularly noteworthy is the superb treatment of the hair, whose meticulously defined locks intertwine in a masterful network, allowing light to play across them in infinite variations. It may be compared with two other examples attributed to Bartolini — one smaller, sold at Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 2015 (lot 184; H. 62.5 cm), and another, larger, in the same salerooms, 7 December 2021 (lot 84; H. 85 cm).

A committed Francophile and a friend of Ingres, Lorenzo Bartolini was a Napoleonic sculptor par excellence. His admiration for Canova’s Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker is reflected in his own monument to Napoleon, executed for Livorno between 1809 and 1813 (now in Bastia). While the pose is inherited from the Apsley House marble, the sculptor ingeniously added a drapery covering the lower half of the Emperor’s body — likely in response to the criticism provoked by the nudity of Canova’s statue (see Spalletti, op. cit., pp. 40–41). Bartolini also created his own bust of Napoleon, in herm form and crowned with laurel. Upon his return to Italy in 1807, he was appointed by Napoleon himself as Director of the Academy of Carrara. In this capacity, Bartolini was responsible for overseeing the quality of the busts produced in the workshops and likely took part in certain important commissions — among which the present example was almost certainly included.

RELATED LITERATURE

G. Hubert, La Sculpture dans l’Italie napoléonienne, Paris, 1964, pp. 141-144 ;

Antonio Canova, exh. cat., Museo Correr, Venise, 1992, pp. 306-307, cat. 138 (entrée par N. K. Kosareva) ;

D. O’Brien, « Antonio Canova’s Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker and the limits of Imperial portraiture », in French History, 2004, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 354-378 ;

Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, Scultura, pp. 148-149, cat. no. 43 ;

B. Musetti, « Lorenzo Bartolini and the Banca Elisiana, or the “sculpture factory” », in F. Falletti, S. Bietoletti, A. Caputo (éd.), Lorenzo Bartolini. Beauty and Truth in Marble, exh. cat., Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, 2011, pp. 147-151 ;

E. Spalletti, « Sull'attività di Bartolini al tempo di Carrara e su alcune commissioni per la Reggia Imperiale di Pitti », in S. Bietoletti, A. Caputo, F. Falletti (ed.), Lorenzo Bartolini. Atti delle Giornate di Studio, Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, 2013, pp. 39-47 ;

S. Androsov, Museo Statale Ermitage. La scultura italiana dal XVII al XVIII secolo. Da Bernini a Canova, Milan, 2017, pp. 319-320, cat. no. 251 ;

S. Bosi, « XIV.2 Antonio Canova », in S. Grandesso et F. Mazzoca, Canova Thorvaldsen. La nascita della scultura moderna, exh. cat., Galleria d’Italia, Milan, 2019, pp. 381-382, cat. no. XIV.2.