Bertel Thorvaldsen, 1796-1844 is celebrated in this one-man museum. He was a precocious youth and was accepted into the Danish Royal Academy of Arts at only 11 years old. He came from a Danish / Icelandic family and his father was a noted wood carver at a large shipyard. Thorvaldsen won many awards and medals while at the Art Academy and he was awarded a stipend to travel to Rome to continue his education. He spent the majority of his life in Rome and had a large workshop and studio there. He did not return to Denmark until 1838 when he accompanied an oversized series of Christ and the 12 disciples. This work was to replace a series that was lost when the Copenhagen Cathedral was destroyed by the British in their 1807 bombardment of Copenhagen. He had been very popular while in Rome and was prolific making bronzes and marbles in the Neoclassical style. His success started when he got a commission to make Jason in marble. This piece took 25 years to complete as he was instantly very popular and in 1805 he had to expand his workshop and add more assistants. He made the work in plaster and then used that plaster sculpture to transfer the work into either marble or into a bronze. Most of the works in the museum were these plaster masters. These plaster pieces all suffered a darkening from soot and smoke over the ages. The museum was huge with three floors of works as well as his collections of antiquities. We could have spend a month in this museum as there were so many pieces to see.
Nice roof top decorations
Hairy men above the door
In the entry way we were greeted by several large pieces
Thorvaldsen made huge pieces, small relief pieces and everything in between
The top of the horse has absorbed more soot
This one was so huge
This piece is labeled A887 and all the pieces have identifying numbers
Jason with one of the fleeces
Smaller relief pieces are also numbered
We three ladies in marble we are
The hallway illustrated how big this museum is. Between each doorway will be a very detailed ceiling, a large piece and several smaller pieces on the wall
So many different ceilings
Some were simple
Some monochrome
Others were very detailed
And colorful
This one had a painting in the center
Nice ears
Many geometric designs
All the ceilings were vaulted
Each one different
A 3-D look
Blue in the center
So many little relief squares like this one with a basket of cupids
Cupids flying
Walking the dogs
This one was unique, each square shows a work by Thorvaldsen
Just when you think there could not be another cieling...
The three muses
A self portrait
Who is up here?
Not a happy man
In a larger hall the ceilings were taken up a notch
Wowzers!
So much beauty
Nice braid
A dandy
Large pieces all along the center hallway
Christ himself
Half of the disciples
The other half
Woof!
A delightful shade of blue
Pan, where is your flute?
Part of his collection of seal rings.
The white dots are plaster imprints of the seals
The legs of the cabinet
Old Greek and Roman bronzes
So much to collect
Each ceiling we come upon is unique
More figurines that Thorvalsen used for inspiration
Little Pharaohs
A big Pharaoh
Who is a good boy?
Looks like a coffee cup
The floor was 3-D and it was odd walking along here
Little wings
The master at work
This ceiling looked like volumes of books
So unique
Thorvaldsen collected Ecrustrian mirrors
Another long hallway
The central hallways had piece after piece
A 20 foot long series of panels
More plaster pieces
Hercules with a lion skin
He had several different self portraits
The central courtyard
Nice birdie!
Pouring the wine
How the design is transferred
The entire process from plaster to bronze
The basement floor has even more things
Many more plaster pieces and molds
A four foot horse head
Rough designs
The scrapes still visible
A collection of the great minds, Cicero, Rafael, Tyge Bothe and Edmund Bourke
His tomb
Big head and us
Illustrations on the outside of the museum
Back on the train, these high heeled sneakers could be from Japan
We are back at the apartment
It has been 2 years and 45 days since we began our Migration
