Fernando Mazzocca

Antonio Canova invented a new genre with his Ideal Heads. They were intended as gifts for close friends and persons he admired as an expression of his affection and gratitude. Starting from the famous bust La Riconoscenza, this magnificent large-format volume offers an impressive survey of these unique expressions of friendship. Canova’s masterpiece La Riconocenza (Gratitude) was long thought to have been lost. It is a tribute to his most important critic, the cultural theorist Quatremère de Quincy. The sculpture was commissioned by the artist Marquise de Grollier as a gift for their mutual friend. These three distinguished individuals left their mark on the cultural life of their time. The author traces the history of the genesis of La Riconocenza through their remarkable correspondence and integrates it into the context of Canova’s Teste ideale.

This volume illustrates the development of art in Central Europe from 1830 – 1860 – a period which begins in the age of Biedermeier but extends well beyond it. It shows by means of a selection of representative works how art at this time developed independently and was not restricted to the historical Biedermeier era. DESCRIPTION “Is that Biedermeier?”, we often ask of pictures which date from the same period but do not look typically Biedermeier. The publication concentrates on these works in particular by showi ng the wide range of painting in the years between 1830 – 1860 through portraits, landscapes and genre pictures. The main focus lies on Austrian painters like Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Rudolf von Alt and Friedrich von Amerling, together with artists from N orthern Italy, Hungary, Bohemia and Slovenia including Giuseppe Tominz, József Borsos, Bedrich Havránek and Francesco Hayez. There are also references to the changes in style in furniture production at that time, which also demonstrated a remarkable divers ity.