Prince Rezzonico. He returned from his travels much
improved, and again commenced his labours with vigour and enthusiasm.

Canova's sculptures have been distributed under three heads:--(1) Heroic
compositions; (2) Compositions of grace and elegance; and (3) Sepulchral
monuments and relievos. In noticing the works which fall under each of
these divisions, it will be impossible to maintain a strict
chronological order, but perhaps a better idea of his productions may
thus be obtained. Their vast number, however, prevents their being all
enumerated.

(1) His "Perseus with the Head of Medusa" appeared soon after his
return. The moment of representation is when the hero, flushed with
conquest, displays the head of the "snaky Gorgon," whilst the right hand
grasps a sword of singular device. By a public decree, this fine work
was placed in one of the _stanze_ of the Vatican hitherto reserved for
the most precious works of antiquity; but it would be a mistake to say
that it wholly sustains this comparison, or that it rivals the earlier
realization of the same subject in Italian art, that by Cellini. In
1802, at the personal request of Napoleon, Canova repaired to Paris to
model a bust of the first consul. The artist was entertained with
munificence, and various honours were conferred upon him. The statue,
which is colossal, was not finished till six years after. On the fall of
the great Napoleon, Louis XVIII. presented this statue to the British
government, by whom it was afterwards given to the duke of Wellington.
"Palamedes," "Creugas and Damoxenus," the "Combat of Theseus and the
Centaur," and "Hercules and Lichas" may close the class of heroic
compositions, although the catalogue might be swelled by the enumeration
of various others, such as "Hector and Ajax," and the statues of
Washington, King Ferdinand of Naples, and others. The group of "Hercules
and Lichas" is considered as the most terrible conception of Canova's
mind, and in its peculiar style as scarcely to be excelled.

(2) Under the head of compositions of grace and elegance, the statue of
Hebe takes the first place in point of date. Four times has the artist
embodied in stone the goddess of youth, and each time with some
variation. The only material improvement, however, is the substitution
of a support more suitable to the simplicity of the art. Each of the
statues is, in all its details, in expression, attitude and delicacy of
finish, strikingly elegant. The