This new volume examines a lost masterpiece by the celebrated Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822): the statue of George Washington for the North Carolina State House, probably the least well-known of his public monuments. In 1816, the North Carolina State house commissioned a full-length statue of George Washington (1732-1799) to be hung in the hall of the state senate. Thomas Jefferson, who was among those consulted about the commission, felt there was no one in the United States up to the task and recommended Canova, one of Europe's most celebrated artists. Jefferson also urged that Washington be depicted in ancient roman dress. Canova accepted the commission and was sent a plaster bust and a drawing of a portrait as a guide to what Washington looked like. The finished statue, which arrived in Raleigh in 1821, was considered a great work of art, and people traveled from far and wide to see it. In 1831, however, the state house in Raleigh burnt down, and the statue was almost completely destroyed, with only charred broken fragments remaining. A sculptor who claimed he could restore it apparently absconded with his advance payment and some of the fragments.

In 1910, the Italian government presented North Carolina with a plaster replica of the original model made by Canova (the original is in the Canova Museum in Possagno, Italy), which he had used as a guide to create the marble statue; and in 1970, the Italian artist Romano Vio used the model to sculpt the marble copy that stands in the rotunda of the capitol building today. The book includes images of the full-scale preparatory plaster model of the sculpture (which has never left Italy before), along with models, engravings, and drawings related to the statue and Thomas Lawrence's portrait of Canova. There are also excerpts from the correspondence from Jefferson, as well as essays by the curator, Xavier F. Salomon, the Frick's Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator; Guido Beltramini, Director of the Palladio Museum in Vicenza, Italy; and Mario Guderzo, Director of the Canova Museum in Possagno, Italy.