Dancer with her finger on her chin

The subject of dancers was painted over and over again by Canova (Berlin, Staatliche Museen; Saint Petersburg, Hermitage Museum), each time experimenting new poses and different painting paces in an attempt to define the relationship between body and drapery. In the Canova poetics the body, elevated by momentum and rhythm, becomes an instrument aspiring to ideal beauty. The inspiration for these creations came from the classic paintings and reliefs with scenes of Maenads and Bacchantes.