Bertel Thorvaldsen (November 19, 1770 - March 24, 1844), a Danish sculptor of European renown, was born in Copenhagen in 1770 (according to some accounts in 1768). He attended the Royal Danish Academy of Art (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi) in that city, 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. As it happened, he spent most of his active life there (1797-1838).

Thorwaldsen's statue of Copernicus, before Polish Academy of Sciences, in Warsaw.

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.

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 (http://www.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/shownewslist.asp?ID=17) in Copenhagen, where his tomb is in the inner courtyard.

A recurrent themes in his work is that of male sensuality, traditionally encoded in European art in the myth of Zeus and Ganymede. Illustrative are his Eros, several versions of Ganymede, the Shepherd Boy with Dogs, 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). Curiously, however, his statue of Christ (created for what is now the Lutheran Cathedral in Copenhagen) has appealed to the Mormons (see: http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/daily/history/1945_present/christus_eom.htm ).

Thorvaldsen's equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski, in Warsaw.

A bronze copy of Thorvaldsen's Self-Portrait stands in Central Park, New York, near the East 97 Street entrance.

Reference:

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.

External links

• Ganymede and the Eagle, from the Androphile image collection (http://www.androphile.org/preview/Museum/Europe/ganymede-thorvaldsen.html)

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