QUARTZ INTAGLIO PENDANT (PENDENTE CON INTAGLIO IN QUARZO) | LUIGI PICHLER, 1820

Canova made two sculptures of the 'Le tre grazie' three graces between 1812 and 1817, the first one was made for Giuseppina Beauharnais, Napoleon's first wife but She has never seen it as She passed away in 1814 before Canova finishes it three years later and the sculpture passed to Giuseppina's son Eugenio and later included in San Petersburg's collection at the Hermitage Museum; the other sculpture was sculptured for John Russell, VI Duke of Bedford and nowadays can be admired at the Victorian and Albert Museum in London. 

These works of art gained a tremendous success to Canova not only for their beauty but also thanks to Ugo Foscolo's poem entitled Alle Grazie and dedicated to Canova's work.

This intaglio represents one of the three graces sculpture, previously mentioned and it has been engraved by Luigi Pichler the son of Antonio Pichler. Luigi was born in a family of hard stone carvers and developed his skill under the guidance of his eldest brother Giovanni in Rome and later became professor of gem engraving at Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and produced many pieces for Emperor Francis I. He was well known for the delicacy and grace with whom depicted some of Thorvaldsen's works of art and portraits.

Thorvaldsen from Copenhagen and Canova from Venice were protagonists and rivals in Rome, the capital of modern sculpture. 

They incarnated with their own original interpretation and technique,the values of classicism and antiquity, creating immortal and timeless masterpieces, some of them recently exhibited in Canova, Thorvaldsen, la nascita della scultura moderna exhibition in Milan at Gallerie d'Italia Museum.