Lot Essay
These impressive busts, a self-portrait of Canova and his patron, the emperor Napoleon, are plaster versions of marbles which are to be found today in the Tempio, at Possagno, and the collection of the Duke of Devonshire, respectively. The traditional attribution, listed above, would suggest a connection with the princes of Canino, who were descended from Charles-Lucien-Jules-Laurent Bonaparte, the eldest son of the emperor's brother, Lucien.