As you plan your Holiday Gift Guide, Haute Living would like you to consider a gift fit for the President of the United States–Marilena Ferrari-FMR House of Fine Art and Foundation’s new one-of-a-kind art book, Antonio Canova. L’invenzione della bellezza (Antonio Canova. The Invention of Beauty).

Copies of Antonio Canova. L’invenzione della bellezza’s have already been commissioned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as gifts to the heads of state who attended this year’s G8 Summit–including President Obama.

Antonio Canova, the 18th century neoclassical Italian sculptor famous for his Cupid and Psyche, among many others, is known by contemporaries as “the supreme minister of beauty.”  In celebration of the genius of Canova, the Marilena Ferrari House of Fine Art and Cultural Foundation created said art book. This beautiful, one-of-a-kind volume, measuring 17” wide by 28” tall, and weighing 45 pounds, is the product of the craftsmanship of Italy’s top artists and artisans.

The cover of the book is a bas-relief replica of Canova’s The Graces and Venus dancing before Mars, carved from Carrara marble and set on a fine silk brocade from the Antica Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua workshop in Venice. The work features photographs taken by Italian avant-garde artist Mimmo Jodice and texts on the artist’s works by four of Canova’s contemporaries – Melchior Missirini, Hércules Cavalli, John Flaxman, and Quatremère de Quincy.  This amazing compilation is limited to an edition size of only 25 copies, and the price is only available upon request.