Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844)

Neue Pinakothek

The Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen was, aside from Antonio Canova, the most important European neoclassical sculptor. In Thorvaldsen's works, as opposed to those of the older Italian master who died in 1822, no remnants of the preceding Rococo style are detectable: Thorvaldsen worked his marble with poise and fragility, his figures are formed as anatomical construction; the modeling of heads and faces reveal themselves more exactly in profile. Thorvaldsen's particular talent lies in his ability to connect the store of forms obtained through his study of the antique with the sculptural requirements of his day. Thorvaldsen's sculptural works were so sought after through all of Europe that the sculptor, who settled in Rome in 1797, could only satisfy the demand by establishing a huge workshop. His tomb for Pope Pius VII in St. Peter's in Rome and his monument to Lord Byron in Cambridge rank as two of his most important projects. In 1838 Thorvaldsen returned to Copenhagen to live out his last years in his native town. In 1848, only four years after the artist's death, a museum was erected there in his honor.