now in the
Casino of the Villa Borghese. Bernini's name is perpetuated in the
colossal statues on the colonnade of St. Peter's, the great bronze
angels with their draperies streaming to the winds on the Ponte San
Angelo, and in the vast fountain in the Piazza Navona. In the court of
the Palazzo Bernini is one of the most interesting of his works--a
colossal figure, allegorical in significance, illustrating "Truth
Brought to Light by Time." One of the most important works of
Bernini--now placed in the Museo Nazionale--is the group of "Pluto and
Proserpine."

[Illustration: TOMB OF CLEMENT XIII, ST. PETER'S, ROME
Antonio Canova
_Page 42_]

The influence that was to reform and regenerate the art of sculpture in
the sixteenth century came with the great and good Canova, with which
was united that of Flaxman and of Thorwaldsen. The heavenly messengers
are always sent and appear at the time they are most needed. Neither
Truth nor Art is ever left without a witness.

"God sends his teachers unto every age,
To every clime, and every race of men,
With revelations fitted to their growth
And shape of mind; nor gives the realm of truth
Into the selfish rule of one sole race."

Canova's genius and services were widely recognized. In 1719 he was made
a Senator; he was ennobled with the title of Marchese of Ischia and
granted a yearly allowance of three thousand scudi; and his noble and
generous enthusiasms, not less than his genius, have left their record
on life as well as on art. When he died (in Venice, Oct. 3, 1822) his
work included fifty-nine statues, fourteen groups, twenty-two monuments,
and fifty-four busts. The statue of Pius V and the tomb of Clement XIII
are his greatest works, and the latter is perhaps even increasingly
held as a masterpiece of the ages.

Canova, warned by the fatal influence of imitation in art in the
sixteenth century, frequently counselled his pupils against copying his
own style and constantly urged them to study from the Greeks. He advised
them to visit frequently the studios of other artists, "and especially,"
he would add, "the studios of Thorwaldsen, who is a very great artist."

In the early part of the nineteenth century contemporary sculpture in
Rome was led by the three great artists,--Canova, Thorwaldsen, and
Gibson. In 1829 Gibson had the honor of being elected a member of the
Accademia di San Luca in place of the sculptor Mas