Antonio Canova was an Italian sculptor born in Bassano, Italy in 1757. A portion of Canova's education came from copying casts of antique sculptures in Venice. Canova became the favorite sculptor of Napoleon as well as the rest of the Bonaparte family, and he sculpted numerous portraits of the emperor's circle of family and friends.

Canova was the foremost sculptor of the Neo-Classical movement, working side by side with the great Neo-Classical painter Jacques Louis David. Along with David, Canova was intrigued by the art and architecture of antiquity. Adding to this interest of antique art was the ongoing excavation, began in 1738, of the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The two resort cities, located on the fertile ground of Campania, were buried by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Published volumes detailing the excavation began flooding into Europe soon after. The renewed interest in the ancient world of Greece and Rome not only included their art, but also their culture. Following the French Revolution, France's citizens were looking to establish the same morals, values and heroic virtues that the ancient Roman's supposedly exhibited in their everyday life. These ethical values were in direct opposition to the frivolous, trivial subject matter of the reigning art movement, the Rococo. Due to this, the Neo-Classical movement (or a revival of Classical art and culture), was founded.

Canova worked in marble and this helped his figures achieve a calm, soft, stately appearance. Along with portrait sculpture he chose themes from classical mythology as the subject of many of his works. At times Canova would incorporate the two as seen in his " Pauline Bonaparte as Venus."

Canova also sculpted a number of funerary pieces, including the tomb of Pope Clement XIII at St. Peter's in Rome.