Perhaps in an attempt to deconsecrate the "Three Graces" iconic status, the Sculpture Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum is mounting an "object in focus" display.
Four cases of related works with text panels include some interesting loans including the terracotta model for the sculpture which has been lent by the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, whose director, Philipe Durey, has supported the V&A's acquisition of the group. This will be on show at the V&A until the end of February.
Other objects include earlier versions of the "Three Graces" subject including a maolica roundel after Marcantonio Raimondi and a German honestone relief; from the eighteenth century, a Meissen group, a Wedgwood vase and a number of versions of the antique group in Siena.
The enormous fame of the sculpture and the widescale dissemination of the works is recorded through prints, one of which shows the Graces at the centre of a group of "graceful and amorous subjects".
Perhaps in order to emphasise the propriety of the decision to retain the work in Britain, one case is devoted to Canova and the English. A large engraving, one of a series produced under the artist's supervision, records his design for Nelson's tomb. Canova's patron for the "Three Graces" recorded his sculpture collection in a book of engravings, here opened on the page which illustrates them. Next to this is an engraving by William Hayter of the painting of Canova commissioned from him by the book. The accompanying text panel discusses the commission of the Graces and its placing in the all-important apse at Woburn.
