Episode 334 - Canova’s “Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker”
Jun 11, 2025•19 min
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Episode description
In 1802, Napoleon courted Antonio Canova to go to Paris to make a bust of him. Four years later, Canova instead completed an 11ft. (3.5m) free-standing idealized nude statue depicting Napoleon as the Roman god of war, Mars. Surprisingly, Napoleon was not pleased with the sculpture, describing it as “too athletic.”
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