Pauline Bonaparte, (born Oct. 20, 1780, Ajaccio, Corsica—died June 9, 1825, Florence), second sister of Napoleon to survive infancy, and the  most beautiful of his sisters.
 
She married Gen. C.V.E. Leclerc (1772–1802), a staff officer of Napoleon, in 1797 and accompanied him to San Domingo. When Leclerc died of yellow fever she returned to Paris. She then married Prince Camillo Borghese (Nov. 6, 1803) and went with him to Rome, but soon tired of him, and returned to Paris, where her behaviour caused some scandal. In 1806 she received the title of duchess of Guastalla. Her offhand treatment of Napoleon’s new empress, Marie-Louise, led to her removal from court in 1810. Nevertheless, she went with her mother to Elba in 1814 and is said to have expressed a wish to share Napoleon’s exile in St. Helena. She died of cancer in Florence in 1825. Canova’s statue of her as Venus reclining on a couch is well known.

Antonio Canova (1757-1822) was a leading representative of the Italian classicism. Characteristic of Canova was the emphasis on rest instead of moving, understated restraint instead of exuberant emotion and elegant simplicity instead of illusion. Canova was the last Italian artist who achieved worldwide fame at his time. The Italian architecture, sculpture and painting had played a pioneering role in the cultural life of Europe for several centuries. This domination came to an end with Canova's death in 1822.