The Three Graces

"The Three Graces" - After Antonio Canova (1757-1822, Italian) - Bronze sculpture on a black marble base. Dimensions with Marble Base: 13" x 8;" Weight is 12 pounds. The piece depicts three Greek mythological personifications of gracefulness.

Canova was considered the greatest sculptor of his time. "The Three Graces" (1812-1817) is a Neoclassical sculpture, in marble, of the mythological three charites, daughters of Zeus – identified on some engravings of the statue as, from left to right, Euphrosyne, Aglaea and Thalia - who were said to represent youth/beauty (Thalia), mirth (Euphrosyne), and elegance (Aglaea). The Graces presided over banquets and gatherings, to delight the guests of the gods.

These three personifications of gracefulness (from the version at the Victoria Albert Museum in London) were the constant attendants of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Sculpted by the foremost Neoclassical sculptor in Europe, Antonio Canova in 1814, this sculpture exemplifies a common theme in art from this period--a revival of mythological themes and classical ideals from Greco-Roman antiquity.

Versions of the piece:
John Russell, the 6th Duke of Bedford, commissioned a version of the now famous work. He had visited Canova's studio in Rome in 1814 and had been immensely impressed by a carving of the Graces which Canova produced for the Empress Josephine. When the Empress died in May of the same year he offered to purchase the completed piece, but was unsuccessful as Josephine’s son Eugène claimed it (his son Maximilian brought it to St. Petersburg, where it can now be found in the Hermitage Museum). Undeterred, the Duke commissioned another version for himself.
The sculpting process began in 1814 and was completed in 1817. In 1819 it was installed at the Duke’s residence in Woburn Abbey. Canova traveled to England to supervise its installation, choosing to display it on a pedestal adapted from a marble plinth with a rotating top. This item is now owned jointly by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Galleries of Scotland, and is alternately displayed at each.
The version in the Hermitage is carved from veined marble and has a square pillar behind the left-hand figure (Euphrosyne). The Woburn Abbey version is carved from white marble and has a round pillar, and the central figure (Aglaea) has a slightly broader waist.