Museo Gypsotheca opens exhibition on Antonio Canova's unfinished Nelson monument

The Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova in Possagno, Italy, opened an exhibition detailing the creative process behind a funerary monument for Horatio Nelson.

The display explores how the sculptor Antonio Canova developed the project between 1806 and 1808 to honor the British Royal Navy admiral known for his victory at Trafalgar. Although the monument was never completed, the exhibition traces the artist's transition from initial drawings to plaster models and monochromatic studies.

The exhibition features various works including a plaster model representing the continents and monochrome pieces from the collections of Bassano del Grappa and Venezia. These items document how Canova moved from pictorial designs to the final plastic and incisive definitions of the work. The display also includes three small red wax figures on slate that depict the birth, the landing of the body, and the glorification of Nelson.

Curator Paolo Mariuz organized the show to highlight how Canova linked modern heroes to epic and mythological traditions. The museum presented a small plaster bas-relief for the first time, showing Minerva, Neptune, and Mars delivering the infant hero to England. This piece and the wax figures underwent restoration, which the museum funded through a crowdfunding campaign that gathered over 70 donations from the public.