Attributed to Antonio Canova (1757-1822) Italian, Rome, circa 1780

possibly Francesco Milizia (1725-1798), Rome

G.L. Mellini, 'Canoviana', Antichità viva, XXIX, 1, Florence, 1990, pp. 21-30; G.L. Mellini, Canova. Saggi di filologia e di ermeneutica, Milan, 1999, pp. 108 and 198

Overall the condition of the terracotta is very good with some minor wear and dirt to the surface consistent with age. The terracotta was covered in a light slip which is slightly worn in some places. There are a few minor chips, including to the proper left cheek, the throat, and the hair on the proper right side, as well as the hair at the forehead. The head is mounted to its board using plaster, some of which is in the crevices at the back of the head. The condition of the stand is excellent.
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This small but arresting Character Head of an anguished youth is thought to be an early masterpiece by Italy's foremost Neoclassical sculptor, Antonio Canova. The Head is clearly inspired by the son on the right of the Laocoon group, whose pathetic representation of struggle had preoccupied artists' imagination since its discovery in 1506. While the Head's antique model is fully recognisable, its features are almost grotesquely exaggerated and the hair dramatised through vigorous indentations.

Lorenzo Mellini argues in favour of an attribution to Canova by comparing the Head to the sculptor's works from his early career in Venice. A similarly faithful study of the antique in terracotta is found in his Wrestlers of 1775, now in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Venice, whereas the Head’s tormented expression and the deep carving of the hair are paralleled in Canova’s figure of Orpheus in the Museo Correr, Venice. Consequently a dating to the 1780s is suggested, a time when the sculptor still experimented with the expressive form. A further argument proposed by Mellini for Canova’s authorship is that the Head probably belonged to the distinguished Roman architect and art theorist Francesco Milizia (1725-1798), and was during that time ascribed to Canova (Mellini, op. cit., 1999, p. 108). Although the Head has yet to be accepted firmly into the canon of Canova’s works, it certainly provides a captivating insight into a young sculptor’s virtuosic engagement with antique prototypes.

RELATED LITERATURE
M. Praz, L’opera complete del Canova, Milan, 1976, p. 89, nos 4 and 6