Italian sculptor, Antonio Canova – arguably the greatest exponent of Neoclassical sculpture – was famous for his marble sculptures of delicate nudes. Working after the excesses of the Baroque style, he carved a niche for himself in the world of neoclassical art. Called ‘the supreme minister of beauty’ and ‘a unique and truly divine man’ by contemporaries, Canova was highly acclaimed in his time. His international reputation as one of the greatest neoclassical sculptors clearly surpassed that of John Flaxman and John Gibson. His most famous works include Apollo Crowning Himself (1781, J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles), Theseus and the Minotaur (1781, Victoria and Albert Museum), Cupid and Psyche (1786-93, Louvre, Paris), and Paolina Bonaparte Borghese as Venus Victorious (1808, Rome, Borghese). His tomb for Pope Clement XIV invited direct comparison with Bernini’s concept of the papal tomb; the latter’s dazzling polychromy has been replaced by Canova’s unsullied Carrara marble, while curvilinear forms and strong diagonals have been replaced by a rigid system of horizontals and verticals. Although later critics have claimed that Canova’s classicism led to a fatal loss of artistic vitality, his contemporaries took a more high-minded view, praising him for his superlative feel for Greek sculpture. For instance, spectators who saw Theseus and the Minotaur for the first time were sure that it was a copy of a Greek original and were shocked to learn it was a contemporary work.