Naiad

model 1815/1817, carved 1820/1823

Antonio Canova

Artist, Italian, 1757 - 1822

Carved from white marble, a nude woman lies belly down but tipped onto one hip and propped up on her elbows in this freestanding sculpture. In this photograph, the woman’s feet are to our left and her head to our right. Her upper body is further bolstered by what appears to be an animal skin – the flaccid hide of a lion, perhaps. Her right arm, closer to us, lies along the animal’s head, and her other elbow is bent so that pointer finger touches the side of her head. She turns sharply to look back over her right shoulder. She has delicate features, and her wavy hair is pulled back and up. There are two wrinkles where her waist cinches together as she turns to look to our left. One foot is daintily crossed over the other, and she lies on a cloth. The animal skin and cloth drape over a slab-like base. The polished, chest-shaped marble plinth is parchment white with gray veining, and the sculpture is photographed against a gray background.

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On View

NGA, West Building, M-138, E

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    marble

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Lillian Rojtman Berkman

  • Dimensions

    overall (approximate height and width): 80 x 190 cm (31 1/2 x 74 13/16 in.)

  • Accession

    2003.62.2

More About this Artwork

Article:  Thinking in Clay: How Antonio Canova Made His Sculptures

A close look at the sculptor’s clay models reveals his extraordinary working process . . . and his thumbprints.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist's studio; acquired c. 1823 by Charles William Stewart (later Vane), 3rd marquess of Londonderry [1778-1854], Londonderry House, London;[1] by inheritance to his son, Frederick William Robert Vane, 4th marquess of Londonderry [1805-1872], Londonderry House; by inheritance to his half-brother, George Henry Robert Charles William Vane-Tempest, 5th marquess of Londonderry [1821-1884], Londonderry House; by inheritance to his son, Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th marquess of Londonderry [1852-1915]; by inheritance to his son, Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th marquess of Londonderry [1878-1949], Londonderry House; his estate; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 16 November 1962, no. 34); purchased by M. Comer for Lillian R. Berkman [Mrs. Jack N. Berkman, formerly Mrs. Marc B. Rojtman, 1922-2001], New York; her estate; bequest 2003 to NGA.
[1] Londonderry House, formerly Holdernesse House, was bought from the 6th lord Middleton in 1822 by the 3rd marquess of Londonderry, and in the next few years was almost entirely rebuilt. Among the collection of marbles at the house, this sculpture is one that has been assumed to have been acquired by the 3rd marquess while he was Ambassador in Vienna from 1814 to 1822, but there appears to be no proof of this. A letter the marquess wrote from Rome on 20 February 1823 to one of the Wyatts concerning the project for rebuilding Holdernesse House confirms his presence there, and another possibility is that the sculpture was acquired during this visit, not long after Canova's death on 13 October 1822. See the catalogue of the 16 November 1962 Sotheby's sale (p. 14), and H. Montgomery Hyde, Londonderry House and Its Pictures, London, 1937: 16, 20, 21.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1970

  • Phillips, John Goldsmith. “Canova’s Reclining Naiad.”Metropolitan Museum Bulletin 29 (Summer 1970): 1-10, esp. 9-10.

1972

  • Bassi, Elena. Antonio Canova a Possagno. Catalogo delle opera. Guida alla visita della Gipsoteca, Casa e Tempio. Treviso, 1972:99, mistakenly assuming that the version made for Lord Darnley, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is identical with the present version, acquired from Canova’s studio by the Marquess of Londonderry.

1976

  • Pavanello, Giuseppe, and Mario Praz. L'opera completa di Canova. Milan, 1976: 126, no. 279, mistakenly assuming that the version made for Lord Darnley, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is identical with the present version, acquired from Canova’s studio by the Marquess of Londonderry.

2004

  • Gopnik, Blake. "A Very Full Week at the National Gallery: Five Full Days of Permanent Pleasure." The Washington Post (December 27, 2004): C1, C2, repro.

2013

  • Penny, Nicholas. "Lord Londonderry and His Canovas." _Studi Neoclassici_1 (2013): 178-180, figs.7-8.

2016

  • Penny, Nicolas. "In Pursuit of an Heiress." Review of Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, Letters of a Dead Man, edited and translated by Linda Parshall. London Review of Books no. 5,906 (22 June 2016): 23. (Refers to Pückler-Muskau's letter of June 7th, 1827 in Linda Parshall, editor and translator. Washington, 2016: 220.)

2022

  • Costarelli, Alessio. Canova e gli Inglesi. Milan, 2022: 215, cat. 26, repro. 309, fig. 35, as c. 1821/22 – 1824, completed in 1824 by Cincinnato Baruzzi and polished by Giovanni Bogazzi.

Wikidata ID

Q63861624

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