On July 4th, it will be auctioned at London da Sotheby's a work autographed by the same author, Antonio Canova. It is the Bust of Peace (Bust of Peace) which was exhibited for the last time in 1817, the year in which it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.
The work belongs to the famous series of Ideal Heads by Canova and was created together with other sculptures in the series "The ideal heads” with the aim of being donated to friends and patrons. Bust of Peace (1814) was sculpted for his first British patron and friend, John Campbell, Lord Cawdorn in thanks for his friendship and patronage, but also a gift for deserving help in repatriating Italian art looted by French armies during the Napoleonic wars.
The sculpture, after the death of John Campbell was handed down for five Cawdorn generations, but was also forgotten until in 1962 when the assets of the house of Stackpole Court in Pembrokshire were auctioned, Bust of Peace was then included in a catalog simply v as “a white marble bust of a lady wearing a diadem”.
Following a long search carried out by the current owner, the bust has been identified as Canova's Bust of Peace. The masterful work is a significant discovery of fundamental importance and historical resonance in Canova's oeuvre.
