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Thorvaldsen Biography

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THORVALDSEN, (Ger. Thorwaldsen), Bertel (1770–1844). An eminent Danish sculptor, the most important and gifted exponent of classicism in sculpture (q.v.) in the nineteenth century. He was born at Copenhagen, Nov. 19, 1770, the son of an Icelandic carpenter and carver of figures upon galleons. He was sent to the academy at the age of 11, and received, in 1793, the great gold medal, with a stipend for three years' study at Rome. This city, however, he did not reach until March, 1797. In Rome he was less influenced by the master works of antiquity than by Carstens (q.v.) who had already been his model at Copenhagen. On the point of returning home, in 1803, he received a commission from Sir Thomas Hope to execute in marble the colossal statue of "Jason with the Golden Fleece," the plaster cast of which had called forth the admiration of all connoisseurs and critics, and even of Canova, Orders now came in abundance, especially after he had finished the spirited relief of the "Abduotion of Briseis," one of his most perfect creations in the realm of relief sculpture. In 1804 he produced the famous group of "Cupid and Psyche," and the relief of "Dance of the Muses on Mount Helicon," and in 1805 the statues of "Apollo," "Bacchus," and "Ganymede," which was later followed by a "Ganymede Filling the Cup," and the graceful group of "Ganymede Watering the Eagle of Zeus." With his increasing reputation came new distinctions and honors; in 1804 the Florence Academy appointed him professor and in 1808 he was elected a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, sending as his reception piece the relief "A Genio Lumen." About 1809 Thorvaldsen won a new patron in Crown Prince Louis of Bavaria, who sought his advice in purchasing antique works of art and commissioned him to execute a statue of "Adonis" (1832, Glyptothek, Munich).

To the year 1809 belong four of his most attractive reliefs, the group of "Hector, Paris, and Helena," and three other mythological subjects, and in 1810–11 he carved the life-size statue of "Psyche," one of his creations approaching nearest to the spirit of antique art, and a heroic-sized "Mars Weighing Cupid's Arrows." In honor of the proposed visit of Napoleon to Rome he was commissioned to model a frieze representing the "Entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon," with which he achieved prodigious success. The marble version found a permanent home in the Villa Carlotta on Lake Como, and a modified replica was acquired by the Danish government for Kristiansborg Castle. From a purely artistic point of view the "Memorial to Baroness Schubart" (1814) is most akin to the Greek reliefs of the fourth century b.c., and of his compositions dating from 1814–15, the medallions of "Morning" and "Night" have probably given him the widest reputation. In 1816–18 he produced "Venus with the Apple," "Hebe," "Cupid Triumphant," "Bacchante Dancing," "Shepherd Boy Resting," "Mercury, Slayer of Argus," and "The Three Graces." The latter subject he treated even more successfully in the high relief for the tomb of the Milanese painter Appiani. A series of charming reliefs with Cupid as the central figure date from the same period. The year 1819 saw the realization of the unique "Lion of Lucerne," a memorial to the Swiss guards who fell guarding Versailles Palace, chiseled out of the natural rock by the Swiss sculptor Ahorn after Thorvaldsen's model.

Arriving at Copenhagen in October of the same year, he was received with great honors. He received a commission for the plastic decoration of Vor Fruekirke (Church of Our Lady), with figures, groups, and reliefs, executed subsequently in Rome. They comprise the colossal statue of "Christus Consolator," one of his masterpieces, the statues of the "Twelve Apostles," and the reliefs of the "Institution of Baptism" and of the "Institution of the Holy Communion." The Christ was finished by his own hand, the others with the assistance of his pupils after his return to Rome. He left Copenhagen in 1820 and, having arranged at Warsaw for the erection of his equestrian statue of Prince Poniatowski and the Copernicus Monument, returned to Rome, where he devoted himself zealously to his new commissions. To these were added the "Monument to Pope Pius VII" in St. Peter's (1831), and the statue of Lord Byron (1835, Trinity College, Cambridge). A statue of "Hope" (1829) adorns the tomb of the Humboldt family in the park at Tegel, near Berlin.

In 1825 Thorvaldsen was elected president of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, notwithstanding the objections to him as a Protestant. Important works, other than those already mentioned, are the statue of Duke Eugene of Leuchtenberg, in St. Michael's Church, Munich, and the equestrian statue of the "Elector Maximilian I" (Munich), the first instance in which he represents an historical personage in the costume of the time. This was done most successfully in the statue of Conradin, Last of the Hohenstaufen, in Santa Maria del Carmine, at Naples. Besides reliefs of antique subjects, he produced in the thirties the figure of a "Young Dancer" (1837, Palazzo Torlonia) and a colossal statue of "Vulcan," one of his last works at Rome.

His return, consequent upon the King's request, was made in a royal Danish frigate. Besides his monumental tasks for the Fruekirke, it was principally reliefs from Greek mythology that now claimed his attention, and in the spring of 1841 he repaired once more to Rome to finish some subjects he had left behind. His journey through Germany was a triumphal progress, and after one year in Rome he returned to Copenhagen, devoting himself to work in relief. The pieces known as "Christmas Joy in Heaven," "The Rape of Hylas," and the famous "Four Seasons" are the most remarkable. He died at the theatre, on March 24, 1844, and was escorted to his burial place with princely honors. His possessions were bequeathed to his native city for the establishment of the Thorvaldsen Museum, in which all his works, in the original or in plaster models, his sketches and studies, and his art collections are preserved, and in the court of which he lies buried. His art is the best which the so-called classicist tendency has produced in sculpture. Unlike Canova, his inspiration was Greek rather than Roman, and his works approach nearest of all to the purity and repose of Greek art. He excelled especially in relief and in ideal and mythological subjects. As he sought chiefly to attain general types, his art was deficient in characterization, and also in dramatic action.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 237.