Giovanni Folo – Paris – Engraving from the Borghese Collection after Agostino Tofanelli, c.1792

Item Description & Information

A superb pair of early 19th-century engravings by Giovanni Battista Balestra (Italian, 1774–1842), after the celebrated marble statue Paris by Antonio Canova (Italian, 1757–1822).

Executed as part of the important publication Oeuvre de Canova: Recueil de Statues..., the prints depict Canova’s powerfully modelled nude figure of Paris, the Trojan prince, from both the front and back views. Paris stands in elegant contrapposto, leaning against a tree stump draped with fabric, one hand raised to adjust his laurel wreath while wearing a crested helmet. The fine engraving and etching technique captures every anatomical detail and the heroic neoclassical beauty of the original sculpture with remarkable sensitivity.

The marble Paris was formerly in the collection of Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais at the Château de Malmaison near Paris, before entering the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, in 1815.

Presented in matching dark frames with gilt slips and wide cream mounts, these prints form an exceptionally decorative and historically interesting pair, ideal for a library, study, hallway, or neoclassical interior.

Measurements: 60.5 cm (H); 41 cm (W). 

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