Restoration: The Three Graces (After Canova)

Like many antique alabasters, these ladies arrived kind of matte beige and grey with dust. We did a proper cleaning (which can be risky with alabaster, as it is sensitive to water), smoothing and surface refinement.

Alabaster Three Graces, Before and After Cleaning

Then, Candice had to rebuild the one hand that appeared like a large mitt or paw, seemingly unfinished by the original sculptor, besides being broken at the fingers. It was an opportunity to do a bit of shaving and stone-carving to refine the hand into something elegant like the others. Given that this is the only free hand with no supporting alabaster below it, she didn’t risk carving it super finely, however.

In Canova’s original, the leftmost sister Euphrosyne’s first two fingers press against Aglaia’s temple to turn her head, but the sculptor of this version positioned the hand with no way to make the fingers touch her sister’s face, so Candice had to make do.

The positioning of Canova’s original Three Graces (top) vs. the alabaster version.

Also typical of old repairs, glue in the breaks had turned rust-brown with age, so Candice picked that out and smoothed and filled the joints with better color matching, using alabaster powder reserved from reducing the size of Euphrosyne’s “paw.”

Repairs to the feet of two Graces

As a result, The Three Graces now show off their pearl white colour and translucence to their best extent. All that’s needed to finish the piece is a plinth in marble or alabaster to layer beneath the base.