In 1792, the Serenissima commissioned Antonio Canova to create a monument celebrating the military genius of the Republic, as represented by its last admiral Angelo Emo. It is a personification of fame writing the word ‘immortality’.

Originally intended for the Sala delle Quattro Porte in the Doge’s Palace, it was eventually erected in 1795 in the Arsenale, but is now on display on the ground floor of the adjacent Naval History Museum in Venice. Admiral Angelo Emo’s ‘Stele’ was the first commission given by the Republic to Antonio Canova and he threw himself into the task producing many drawings, plaster models and compositional studies. It is interesting that at the same time as working on this memorial to the last hero of the Republic, who died in 1792, he was also working on another project of symbolic and political significance, his Monument to Titian for the Frari church, both projects expressive of the myth of the Serenissima. The Monument to Titian which was never realised was later adapted as the monument to Canova himself and is currently a Venice in Peril project. For the Emo monument Canova chose to use the model of a funerary tombstone, derived from the model of the Greco-Roman stele, which he later reworked for thirteen other commissions.

Loading comments...

Loading contexts...

Make:	Panasonic
Model:	DMC-FZ200
Exposure:	0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture:	f/2.8
ISO Speed:	400
Focal Length:	10.1 mm