Antonio Canova was born in a small village near Venice. Although Greece was far away, he was still nicknamed “the new Phidias”, as he brought the classical era from 400 BC to 1700 AD, becoming the point man in neoclassicism, a cultural trend that will restore the glory of European art.

The identification of classicism with Antonio Canova dates back to 1779, year of his first stay in Rome, a period that will affect his whole life and art production. Indeed, the “eternal city”, with its open-air museum and some of the most prestigious art collections in the world — including the Vatican Museums —, will introduce him to the Greek and Roman mythology, sharing with many artists of his era the theories of the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann.