received the highest tokens of esteem. The artist for whom he showed particular sympathy and regard in Lon don was Haydon, who might at the time be counted the sole representative of historical painting there, and whom he especially honoured for his championship of the Elgin marbles, then recently transported to England, and ignorantly depreciated by polite connoisseurs. Canova returned to Rome in the beginning of 1816, with the ransomed spoils of his country s genius. Immediately after, he received several marks of distinction, by the hand of the Pope himself his name was inscribed in " the Golden Volume of the Capitol," and he received the title of marquis of Ischia, with an annual pension of 3000
crowns, about 625.He now contemplated a great work, a colossal statue of Religion. The model filled Italy with admiration ; the marble was procured, and the chisel of the sculptor ready to- be applied to it, when the jealousy of churchmen as to the site, or some other cause, deprived the country of the projected work. The mind of Canova was inspired with the warmest sense of devotion, and though foiled in this instance he resolved to consecrate a shrine to the cause. In his native village he began to make preparations for erecting a temple which was to contain, not only the above statue, but other works of his own ; within its precincts were to repose also the ashes of the founder. Accordingly, in prosecution of this design, he repaired to Passagno in 1819. At a sumptuous entertainment which he gave to his workmen, there occurred an incident which marks the kindliness of his character. When the festivities of the day had terminated, he requested the shepherdesses and peasant-girls of the adjacent hamlets to pass in review before him, and to each he made a present, expending on the occasion about 400. We need not therefore be surprised that a few years afterwards, when the remains of the donor came to be deposited in their last asylum, the grief which the surrounding peasantry evinced was in natural expression so intense and irrepressible as to eclipse the studied solemnity of more pompous mourning.
After the foundation-stone of this edifice had been laid, Canova returned to Rome ; but every succeeding autumn he continued to visit Passagno, in order to direct the workmen, and encourage them with pecuniary rewards and medals. In the meantime the vast expenditure exhausted his resources, and compelled him to labour with unceasing assiduity when age and disease had set their seal upon his frame. During the period which intervened between commencing operations at Passagno and his decease, he executed or finished some of his most striking works. Amongst these were the group Mars and Venus, the colossal figure of Pius VI., the Pieta, the St John, the recumbent Magdalen. The last performance which issued from his hand was a colossal bust of his friend the Count Cicognara. In May 1822 he paid a visit to Naples, to superintend the construction of wax moulds for an equestrian statue of the perjured Bourbon king Ferdinand. This journey materially injured his health, but he rallied again on his return to Rome. Towards the latter end of the year he paid his annual visit to the place of his birth, when he experienced a relapse. He proceeded to Venice, and expired there on the 13th of October 1822, at the age of nearly sixty-five. His disease was one which had affected him from an early age, caused by the continual use of carving-tools, producing a depression of the ribs. The most distinguished funeral honours were paid to his remains, which were deposited in the temple at Passagno on the 25th of the same month.
Canova, in a certain sense, renovated the art of sculpture in Italy, and brought it back to that standard from which it had declined when the sense both of classical beauty and moderation, and of Titanic invention and human or superhuman energy as embodied by the unexampled genius of Michelangelo, had succumbed to the overloaded and flabby mannerisms of the 17th and 18th centuries. His finishing was refined, and he had a special method of giving a mellow and soft appearance to the marble. He formed his models of the same size as the work he designed was intended to be. The prominent defect of Canova s attrac tive and highly trained art is that which may be summed up in the word artificiality, that quality, so characteristic of the modern mind, which seizes upon certain properties of conception and execution in the art of the past, and upon certain types of beauty or emotion in life, and makes a compound of the two regulating both by the standard of taste prevalent in contemporary " high society." a standard which, referring to cultivation and refinement as its higher term, declines towards fashion as the lower. Of his moral character a generous and unwearied benevolence formed the most prominent feature. The greater part of the vast fortune realized by his works was distributed in acts of this description. He established prizes for artists and endowed all the academies of Rome. The aged and un fortunate were also the objects of his peculiar solicitude. His titles were numerous. He was enrolled amongst the nobility of several states, decorated with various orders of knighthood, and associated in the highest professional honours. (See the Life of Canova by M ernes, one vol. ; that by Missinini, four vols. ; the Biografia, by the Count Cicognara ; and Opere Scelte di Antonio Canova^ by Anzelmi, Naples, 1842.)
Wiirtemberg, in the circle of the Neckar, about 2| miles N.E. of Stuttgart, in 48 48 22" N. lat. and 9 12 49" E. long. It is situated in the most fertile and populous part of the country, at a point where the high roads of the circle converge, and now forms one of the most flourish ing towns in Germany. Its public buildings comprise a cathedral of the 15th century, dedicated to Uffo, a beautiful town-hall, the royal theatre, the market-house, and various educational institutions. The Wilhelma palace, built in 1842-51 as a summer residence for the late king William, is an elaborate example of the Saracenic style, and is surrounded by extensive and beauti ful gardens. A very considerable industry is carried on in the town, the most important branches being wool- spinning, dyeing, cotton-weaving, and the manufacture of steel and machines. The transit trade is still more im portant and various. A large temporary population is attracted to the town by the fame of its mineral springs. These are about forty in number, for the most part of tepid water, which is used both for drinking and bathing, and is said to be highly beneficial in dyspepsia and weakness of the nervous system. Besides the usual bathing establish ments, there are several medical institutions for the treatment of special diseases. Siclberg, a hill in the neighbourhood, upwards of 600 feet in height, is interest ing for its caverns and the numerous fossils which it has preserved. Not far distant is the princely seat of Rosenstein (previously known as Kahlenstein), which was built in 1824-30 ; and on the neighbouring height of the Rothenberg was formerly the ancestral castle of the house of Wiirtemberg. Canstatt is mentioned as early as ths 8th century, under the name of Condistat, as the seat of a great court held by Charlemagne for the trial of the rebellious dukes of Alemaimia and Bavaria. From Louis the Bavarian it received the same imperial rights and privileges as were enjoyed by the town of Esslingen. Down to the middle of the 15th century it remained the capital of Wiirtemberg ; and as an important place of transport it
has been frequently the object of military operations. In