Rediscovering Antonio Canova’s Lost Dancer

Rediscovering Antonio Canova’s Lost Dancer
"Dancing Girl With Cymbals," 1809 or 1812, by Antonio Canova. Marble; 6 feet, 9 inches tall. Sculpture Collection and Museum of Byzantine Art at the Bode Museum, State Museums of Berlin, in Germany. Antje Voigt/CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Lorraine Ferrier
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BERLIN—In the solemn silence of the Bode Museum, I can almost hear the music as Antonio Canova’s nearly life-size sculpture titled “Dancing Girl With Cymbals” effortlessly twirls and pivots on one leg before me. She dances with a lightness seen only in flight, raising her hands above her head for drama and balance, while playing her cymbals. She wears a delicate classical-style dress that skims her body, emphasizing every lithe move she makes.

This dancer’s peaceful presence belies the sculpture’s tumultuous past, having almost been destroyed in a fire and then lost for nearly 130 years before being rediscovered by chance in 1979.

Lorraine Ferrier
Lorraine Ferrier
Author
Lorraine Ferrier writes about fine arts and craftsmanship for The Epoch Times. She focuses on artists and artisans, primarily in North America and Europe, who imbue their works with beauty and traditional values. She's especially interested in giving a voice to the rare and lesser-known arts and crafts, in the hope that we can preserve our traditional art heritage. She lives and writes in a London suburb, in England.
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