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- ANTONIO CANOVA
- A GOOD many years ago there lived in Italy a little boy whose name was
- Antonio Canova. He lived with his grandfather, for his own father was
- dead. His grandfather was a stonecutter, and he was very poor.
- Antonio was a puny lad, and not strong enough to work. He did not care
- to play with the other boys of the town. But he liked to go with his
- grandfather to the stoneyard. While the old man was busy, cutting, and
- trimming the great blocks of stone, the lad would play among the chips.
- Sometimes he would make a little statue of soft clay; sometimes he
- would take hammer and chisel, and try to cut a statue from a piece of
- rock. He showed so much skill that his grandfather was delighted.
- "The boy will be a sculptor some day," he said.
- Then when they went home in the evening, the grandmother would say,
- "What have you been doing to-day, my little sculptor?"
- And she would take him upon her lap and sing to him, or tell him stories
- that filled his mind with pictures of wonderful and beautiful things. And
- the next day, when he went back to the stoneyard, he would try to make
- some of those pictures in stone or clay.
- There lived in the same town a rich man who was called the Count.
- Sometimes the Count would have a grand dinner, and his rich friends
- from other towns would come to visit him. Then Antonio's grandfather
- would go up to the Count's house to help with the work in the kitchen;
- for he was a fine cook as well as a good stonecutter.
- It happened one day that Antonio went with his grandfather to the
- Count's great house. Some people from the city were coming, and there
- was to be a grand feast. The boy could not cook, and he was not old
- enough to wait on the table; but he could wash the pans and kettles, and
- as he was smart and quick, he could help in many other ways.
- All went well until it was time to spread the table for dinner. Then there
- was a crash in the dining room, and a man rushed into the kitchen with
- some pieces of marble in his hands. He was pale, and trembling with
- fright.
- "What shall I do? What shall I do?" he cried. "I have broken the statue
- that was to stand at the center of the table. I cannot make the table look
- pretty without the statue. What will the Count say?"
- And now all the other servants were in trouble. Was the dinner to be a
- failure after all? For everything depended on having the table nicely
- arranged. The Count would be very angry.
- "Ah, what shall we do?" they all asked.
- Then little Antonio Canova left his pans and kettles, and went up to the
- man who had caused the trouble.
- "If you had another statue, could you arrange the table?" he asked.
- "Certainly," said the man; "that is, if the statue were of the right length
- and height."
- "Will you let me try to make one?" asked Antonio. "Perhaps I can make
- something that will do."
- The man laughed.
- "Nonsense!" he cried. "Who are you, that you talk of making statues on
- an hour's notice?"
- "I am Antonio Canova," said the lad.
- "Let the boy try what he can do," said the servants, who knew him.
- And so, since nothing else could be done, the man allowed him to try.
- On the kitchen table there was a large square lump of yellow butter. Two
- hundred pounds the lump weighed, and it had just come in, fresh and
- clean, from the dairy on the mountain. With a kitchen knife in his hand,
- Antonio began to cut and carve this butter. In a few minutes he had
- molded it into the shape of a crouching lion; and all the servants crowded
- around to see it.
- "How beautiful!" they cried. "It is a great deal prettier than the statue
- that was broken."
- When it was finished, the man carried it to its place.
- "The table will be handsomer by half than I ever hoped to make it," he
- said.
- When the Count and his friends came in to dinner, the first thing they
- saw was the yellow lion.
- "What a beautiful work of art!" they cried. "None but a very great artist
- could ever carve such a figure; and how odd that he should choose to
- make it of butter!" And then they asked the Count to tell them the name
- of the artist.
- "Truly, my friends," he said, "this is as much of a surprise to me as to
- you." And then he called to his head servant, and asked him where he
- had found so wonderful a statue.
- "It was carved only an hour ago by a little boy in the kitchen," said the
- servant.
- This made the Count's friends wonder still more; and the Count bade the
- servant call the boy into the room.
- "My lad," he said, "you have done a piece of work of which the greatest
- artists would be proud. What is your name, and who is your teacher?"
- "My name is Antonio Canova," said the boy, "and I have had no teacher
- but my grandfather the stonecutter."
- By this time all the guests had crowded around Antonio. There were
- famous artists among them, and they knew that the lad was a genius.
- They could not say enough in praise of his work; and when at last they
- sat down at the table, nothing would please them but that Antonio
- should have a seat with them; and the dinner was made a feast in his
- honor.
- The very next day the Count sent for Antonio to come and live with him.
- The best artists in the land were employed to teach him the art in which
- he had shown so much skill; but now, instead of carving butter, he
- chiseled marble. In a few years, Antonio Canova became known as one of
- the greatest sculptors in the world.
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