A new exhibition in Milan brings together for the first time the works of Antonio Canova (1757-1822) and the younger Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), who were both contemporaries and rivals. Canova and Thorvaldsen were both neo-classicist sculptors working in Italy, sometimes creating works inspired by the same subject, and both working for the same people (including Napoléon and the popes, dukes and monarchs of their time). While Thorvaldsen could never master Canova’s sens...