Bertel Thorvaldsen
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Bertel Thorvaldsen, portrait by Karl Begas, c. 1820. |
(Albert) Bertel Thorvaldsen, sometimes erroneously spelled
Thorwaldsen (
November 19,
1770 -
March 24,
1844) was a
Danish sculptor.
Thorvaldsen was born in
Copenhagen in
1770 (according to some accounts in
1768), the son of an
Icelander who had settled in Denmark, and there carried on the trade of a wood-carver. This account is disputed by some Icelanders, who claim Thorvaldsen was born in Iceland.
He attended Copenhagen's
Royal Danish Academy of Art (
Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi), winning all the prizes including the large Gold Medal. As a consequence, he was granted a Royal stipend, enabling him to complete his studies in
Rome, where he arrived on
March 8,
1797.
Thorvaldsen's first success was the model for a statue of
Jason, which was highly praised by
Antonio Canova, the most popular sculptor in the city. In 1803 he received the commission to execute it in marble from
Thomas Hope, a wealthy
English art-patron. From that time Thorvaldsen's success was assured, and he did not leave Italy for sixteen years.
In
1819 he visited his native Denmark. Here he was commissioned to make the colossal series of statues of
Christ and the twelve
Apostles for the rebuilding of
Vor Frue Kirke (from 1922 known as the Copenhagen Cathedral) between
1817 and
1829, after its having been destroyed in the
British bombardment of Copenhagen in
1807. These were executed after his return to Rome, and were not completed till 1838, when Thorvaldsen returned to Denmark.
He died suddenly in the Copenhagen Royal Theatre on
March 24,
1844, and bequeathed a great part of his fortune for the building and endowment of a museum in Copenhagen, and also left to fill it all his collection of works of art and the models for all his sculptures very large collection, exhibited to the greatest possible advantage. Thorvaldsen is buried in the courtyard of this museum, under a bed of roses, by his own special wish.
Thorvaldsen never married, but he had an illegitimate daughter with a long-time love. Thorvaldsen did acknowledge this daughter, and to this day, descendants of Thorvaldsen live in the United States and Sicily.
Thorvaldsen was an outstanding representative of the
Neoclassical period in
sculpture. He was often compared to
Antonio Canova, but in fact he embodied the style of classical
Greek art more than the Italian artist. The poses and expressions of his figures are much more stiff and formal than those of Canova's.
Motifs for his works (reliefs, statues, and busts) were drawn mostly from
Greek mythology, but he also created portraits of important personalities, as in his statue of
Pope Pius VII. His works can be seen in many European countries, especially in the
Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, where his tomb is in the inner courtyard.
Part of his work is informed by a pronounced
pederastic sensibility, traditionally encoded in European art in the myth of
Zeus and
Ganymede. Illustrative are his
Eros, several versions of
Ganymede, the
Shepherd Boy with Dog, and his bas relief of
Hylas and the Nymphs, depicting a shapely
Hylas terrified of the nubile nymphs embracing him.
Outside Europe, Thorvaldsen is less well known (but see the important paper by Dimmick below). Additionally, his statue of the
resurrected Christ (created for what is now the
Lutheran Cathedral in Copenhagen) has appealed to the members of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [
1] and a 3.4 m replica is on display at
Temple Square.
A bronze copy of Thorvaldsen's
Self-Portrait stands in
Central Park,
New York, near the East 97 Street entrance.
*Lauretta Dimmick, "Mythic Proportion: Bertel Thorvaldsen's Influence in America",
Thorvaldsen: l'ambiente, l'influsso, il mito, ed. P. Kragelund and M. Nykjær, Rome 1991 (Analecta Romana Instituti Danici, Supplementum 18.), pp. 169-191.
*Eugène Plon,
Thorwaldsen, sa vie, etc. (Paris, 1880);
*Andersen,
B. Thorwaldsen (Berlin, 1845)
*Killerup,
Thorwaldsen's Arbeiten, etc. (Copenhagen, 1852)
*Thiele,
Thorwaldsen's Leben (Leipzig, 1852-1856);
*CA Rosenberg,
Thorwaldsen ... mit 146 Abbildungen (1896, "Künstlermonographien," No. 16)
*S Trier,
Thorvaldsen (1903);
*A Wilde,
Erindringer om Jerichau og Thorvaldsen (1884)
Malta 1796-1797: Thorvaldsen's Visit (Malta & Cop., 1996)
*
Adonis (links to larger image in new window)*
Adonis (5 views)*
Ganymede and the Eagle, from the Androphile image collection*
Jason with the Golden Fleece (links to larger image)*
The Three Graces (relief)*
Various works, illustrated, with biography (NB: affiliated with erotic site)*
23 works
