Something beautiful: a clay "sketch"

Study for Adam and Eve Mourning the Dead Abel, Antonio Canova, circa 1818-22

Last year, I saw the most stunning exhibit of Canova studies at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. As a painter might sketch his composition on paper to work out the angles and positions, so does a sculptor "sketch" his vision in clay prior to casting it in marble. Honestly, I found these sketches deeply arresting—how visceral is the agony of these parents? I was also touched by the visible fingerprints and fingernail marks of the artist, and by realizing that Eve holding her dead son is a prototype of the Pieta.

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