Canova's plaster models and the Temple
In Possagno, a small village at the foot of Monte Grappa, was born in 1757 Antonio Canova, the greatest sculptor of Neoclassicism, celebrated throughout Europe for the grace and perfection of his marble figures. His birthplace and the extraordinary Gipsoteca, the gallery of plaster casts, form one of the most moving museums in Italy.
The Gipsoteca preserves the plaster models that Canova created before carving his marbles, full of the small bronze nails, the "repères", used to transfer the measurements to the stone, together with sketches in terracotta, drawings and paintings: you see the genesis of masterpieces such as the Three Graces, Paolina Borghese as Venus, Cupid and Psyche, Hebe and the monuments to popes and sovereigns. The original nineteenth century hall, a long basilica with skylights, was joined in 1957 by a new wing designed by Carlo Scarpa, a masterpiece of modern museography, where natural light falling from cube-shaped windows makes the white plaster vibrate. On the hill above the village stands the Tempio Canoviano, the church that Canova designed and financed for his village, combining the Pantheon and the Parthenon, where he is buried.
Tip: the Scarpa wing is best seen on a sunny day; from the colonnade of the Temple the view sweeps over the plain.
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