The Pugilists Creugas and Damoxenos, After Antonio Canova

Description

Rinaldo Rinaldi (1793-1873), after the models by Antonio Canova (1757-1822).

The Pugilists Creugas and Damoxenos.

White statuary marble.

Each signed ‘Rinaldi Rinaldo Roma’.

Rome, circa 1815-1830.

Of ‘heroic size’, meaning larger than life-size, the discovery of these statues of Creugas and Damoxenos, by no less than Canova’s favourite pupil, is an important one.

The only recorded second examples executed by a pupil of Canova, these statues are a new discovery, and their full history is not known.

They follow the original marble statues of Creugas and Damoxenos, known as the Pugilists, which Canova completed in 1801 and 1806 for the Vatican, where they are displayed in the Octagon Hall at the Pio Clementino Museum. The original plasters of Creugas and Damoxenos, from which Canova transcribed his statues to marble, were kept in his studio at Via San Giacomo until after his death when they were removed to Canova’s Gypsotheca in Possagno in around 1829.

The only evidence of Canova himself, or any of his pupils, receiving a commission to make second versions of the Pugilists dates to 1802. Canova had completed his statue of Creugas for the Vatican and was still working on Damoxenos when he was visited by the English collector Sir Simon Houghton Clarke, who commissioned from him replicas of both. By 1804 Canova had worked up his second Creugas in rough-hewn marble. It is not known how fair Canova progressed with Creugas, or if he began the companion second version of Damoxenos. He may well have stopped the commission because, owing to the Napoleonic wars, Canova could not deliver to England.

When the Treaty of Paris brought a pause in hostilities in 1814, Sir Simon Clarke wrote to remind Canova of his commission, but saying he would now prefer a statue of Venus. With Clarke’s commission cancelled, and with no record of either statue of Creugas or Damoxenos being left unfinished in the artist’s studio at his death in 1822, it is not known what happened to the second versions.

By 1812 Canova had been joined by a new apprentice who fast became his favourite. The young Rinaldo Rinaldi had been studying in Venice under Canova’s friend and biographer Count Leopoldo Cicognara. Canova immediately recognised Rinaldi’s abilities and encouraged him to exhibit at the Academy of Saint Luke a plaster standing figure Triumphant Athlete in 1813. A marble group Cephalus and Procris, exhibited in 1814, won Rinaldi a prize and affirmed the adoration of Canova who exclaimed “that it would have been superb if Rinaldi were my son”. By 1815, Rinaldi is known to have collaborated with Canova on the important commission of Mars and Venus for the Prince Regent.

In the certainty that a second version of Creugas was begun by Canova, it is tempting to think of the young Rinaldi completing the pair.

It is also possible that Rinaldi undertook an independent commission for these figures. Working in Canova’s studio, Rinaldi would have had every opportunity to transcribe the plasters to marble during Canova’s lifetime or after his death, but before the plasters were removed to Possagno.

After Canova’s death Rinaldi was retained at Canova’s studio to complete part finished works and new commissions, such as repetitions of Canova’s self-portrait busts for Count Cicognara and the Duke of Devonshire, for the latter Rinaldi also sculpted the Sleeping Lion at Chatsworth in 1825.

From 1829, the remaining marbles and plasters from Canova’s studio at Via delle Colonnette were removed to Possagno where Creugas and Damoxenos are recorded at Canova’s Gypsotheca in a catalogue dated 1837. Rinaldi took up the lease of Canova’s studio and for the remainder of his long career he fulfilled ample prestigious commissions for his own creations and not as a copyist of Canova.

In the 1840s a pair of copies of Creugas and Damoxenos were supplied to Chatsworth by Francesco Bienaimé (1844-1871). They, however, are crude imitations and were not made in marble with reference to Canova’s plasters. In the 1880s, a pair of marble statuary versions were made for the Botanical Gardens in Sydney, Australia. Later still, a Roman studio called Morelli e Rinaldi (no relation) were making copies of Creugas and Damoxenos, such as the pair delivered to the Olympic Club in San Franciso in 1914. The present marble versions should not be confused with such later replicas.

The present pair are signed ‘Rinaldi Rinaldo Roma’ and attributed to Rinaldi working from Canova’s plasters circa 1815-1830.

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