ID: 700008144 Page link: http://vocab.getty.edu/page/cona/700008144	Record Type: Movable Work

Portrait of Antonio Canova (drawing (visual work); Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (German, 1751 - 1829) (Ger...; 1787; J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, Los Angeles county, Calif...; 2008.47)

Note: This intense portrait of the famed neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova (Italian, 1757-1822) was executed by the artist's friend and contemporary, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein. The pair met in Rome shortly after their arrival in the city circa 1780. Canova's rather leonine features in this portrait, including his oversized, deep-set eyes and tense brow suggest the focus and resolve of this extraordinary sculptor. His facial features and balding head correspond closely to Canova's painted self-portrait in the Uffizi, dating from 1792. Tischbein is sometimes called "Goethe-Tischbein," due to his close relationship with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that culminated in his most well-known painting of Goethe in the Roman Campagna (1787). Like Tischbein's painting of Goethe, the present portrait can probably be understood as a "friendship portrait," done by Tischbein as a symbol of kinship between the two artists. Known especially for his 'portrait' heads of animals that display human-like characters, Tischbein was an especially prolific draftsman. Similarly, his drawings of humans display curious likenesses to animals, perhaps evidence of the artist's friendship with the physiognomist Johann Kaspar Lavater, who believed that an individual's character could be divined through his facial characteristics or with reference to the animal that he most closely resembled. For example, an individual who looked like a sheep was mild, and who resembled a lion was haughty and fierce; when Tischbein called the landscape painter Jakob Philipp Hackert a fox, Hackert terminated his friendship with Tischbein, calling him an ostrich in response. Tischbein intended to publish a series of engravings of animals and a parallel series of portraits of men bearing the same characteristics, but this project was never realized. Whether or not a specific animal is referenced in the present drawing, Canova's distinct facial features nevertheless reflect Tischbein's interest in the burgeoning science of physiognomy. This drawing is one of two created by Tischbein of his friend, the other version in the Landesmuseum Oldenburg is larger but less exquisitely detailed.

Titles:

Portrait of Antonio Canova (preferred,C,U,RP,English-P,,)

Catalog Level: item

Work Types:

drawing (visual work) [300033973] (preferred)

..... (Objects Facet, Visual and Verbal Communication (hierarchy name), Visual Works (hierarchy name), visual works (works), <visual works by material or technique>)

Classifications:

drawings (preferred)

Creation Date: 1787

Creator Display:

Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (German, 1751 - 1829) (German Artist) [preferred,JPGM]

draftsman Tischbein, Wilhelm (German painter and printmaker, 1751-1829) [500030252]

Locations:

Current: J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, Los Angeles county, California, United States) [500115988] J. Paul Getty Trust, Corporate Bodies (Corp. Body)

Repository Numbers: 2008.47

Other: Creation: Italia [1000080] Europe (continent), World (facet) (Geographic)

Display Materials: Black chalk

	black chalk [300080058]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by composition>, inorganic material, chalk)

Dimensions: 23.5 x 19 cm (9 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.)

Cultures:

German (preferred)

General Subject:

portraits (preferred)

Specific Subjects:

	Canova, Antonio (Italian sculptor, painter, draftsman, and architect, 1757-1822) [500115339]
	.....(Persons, Artists) (ULAN)

Inscriptions: Inscription in pen and brown ink (?) in the lower right corner: "Genelli"

List/Hierarchical Position:

..... Movable Works

.......... Movable Works by class: drawings, paintings, prints, other two-dimensional media

Sources and Contributors:
Portrait of Antonio Canova	........ [JPGM,VP]
	........ J. Paul Getty Museum database for collections (2000-)

Subject: ....... [JPGM,VP]

Note:
English	..... [JPGM]
	..... J. Paul Getty Museum database for collections (2000-)