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Antonio Canova
by
“How beautiful!” they cried. “It is a great deal prettier than the statue that was broken.”
When it was finished, the man carried it to its place.
“The table will be handsomer by half than I ever hoped to make it,” he said.
When the Count and his friends came in to dinner, the first thing they saw was the yellow lion.
“What a beautiful work of art!” they cried. “None but a very great artist could ever carve such a figure; and how odd that he should choose to make it of butter!” And then they asked the Count to tell them the name of the artist.
“Truly, my friends,” he said, “this is as much of a surprise to me as to you.” And then he called to his head servant, and asked him where he had found so wonderful a statue.
“It was carved only an hour ago by a little boy in the kitchen,” said the servant.
This made the Count’s friends wonder still more; and the Count bade the servant call the boy into the room.
“My lad,” he said, “you have done a piece of work of which the greatest artists would be proud. What is your name, and who is your teacher?”
“My name is Antonio Canova,” said the boy, “and I have had no teacher but my grandfather the stonecutter.”
By this time all the guests had crowded around Antonio. There were famous artists among them, and they knew that the lad was a genius. They could not say enough in praise of his work; and when at last they sat down at the table, nothing would please them but that Antonio should have a seat with them; and the dinner was made a feast in his honor.
The very next day the Count sent for Antonio to come and live with him. The best artists in the land were employed to teach him the art in which he had shown so much skill; but now, instead of carving butter, he chiseled marble. In a few years, Antonio Canova became known as one of the greatest sculptors in the world.