Antonio Canova retrospective at Museo di Roma features rotating sculptures

The Museo di Roma in Rome presents a major exhibition on Antonio Canova (1757–1822), the celebrated Neoclassical sculptor. The show spans 13 sections with around 170 works by Canova, his collaborators, and contemporaries. It includes drawings, models, and plaster or terracotta sketches that document his creative process from conception to the final marble sculptures, known for their translucent finish achieved with wax and other treatments. Canova arrived in Rome in 1779 and established his studio on via di San Giacomo, which became a hub for artists, intellectuals, and collectors. The exhibition explores his relationships with literati like Vittorio Alfieri, his anti-Jacobin political stance, and his role in recovering Napoleonic loot after the Congress of Vienna. Several sculptures are displayed on rotating pedestals, as Canova intended, allowing kinetic viewing under varying light. The show closes with the 'Dancer with Hands on Hips' (1806–1812) from the Hermitage Museum, which spins in a mirrored room, seemingly coming to life.