GANYMEDE BY BERTEL THORVALDSEN

TREASURE FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ICELANDCULTURE HOUSEHVERFISGATA5 JUNE 2019 – 31 MAY 2020

Day and NightOriginals made in Rome 1815

Biscuit, Size variableHólavellir cemetery, Reykjavík

The bas-reliefs Day and Night, made by Thorvaldsen in Rome in 1815, are undoubtedly the artist‘s most popular bas-reliefs, widely seen on gravestones in Icelandic churchyards. At the Thorvaldsen Museum the two pieces hang as a pair, as if to symbolise the two phases of the day, and also life and death. Night is depicted as a winged female figure or angel with her head bent and eyes closed, holding two sleeping infants (sleep and death) in her embrace. In the background an owl, the bird of the night, flies towards the observer. The ambiance is peaceful. Day is also a winged female figure, but now embodying strength and movement: Aurora, goddess of the dawn, strews roses on the earth as she glances over her shoulder at the guardian of the light who accom-panies her, holding up a flaming torch to symbolise the sun and light. In the Hólavellir cemetery, other reliefs by Thorvaldsen may also be seen on grave-stones, such as images from the baptismal font of Reykjavík Cathedral.

Jón Eiríksson, head librarian Original made in Copenhagen before 1796

Plaster, Height 20 cmNational Museum of Iceland, Mms-1537

In the National Museum of Iceland is a plaster mask of konferensråd Jón Eiríks-son (1728–1787), head librarian of the Royal Library in Copenhagen. The mask is part of a bust made by Thorvaldsen in his youth, before he left for Rome. Its date is uncertain. The bust was long owned by Grímur Thorkelín of Copenha-gen, and in 1825 it was the property of regional governor Bjarni Thorsteinsson, who sent it to Iceland. Unfortunately the bust was broken in transit, so badly that only the facial mask remained whole. In 1920 Bjarni‘s granddaughter Steinunn Thorsteinsson (1886–1978) presented it to the National Museum.

Text: Dagný HeiðdalEnglish translation: Anna YatesPhotography: Sigurður Gunnarsson, Listasafn Íslands; Thorvaldsens Museum Design: Hildigunnur Gunnarsdóttir© Listasafn Íslands / National Gallery of Iceland

Sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844) was one of the most renowned artists in Europe of his time. He sought inspiration in the classical art of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, and is regarded as one of the leading exponents of neoclassical sculpture, together with Italian sculptor Antonio Canova. Thorvaldsen spent most of his career in Rome, where his clients included the Pope, Napoleon, and many European royal families. He is the only non-Catholic sculptor whose work is on display in St. Peter‘s in Rome. Examples of Thorvaldsen’s work are to be seen all over the world, in museums, churches and outdoor spaces. The Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen upholds his memory and preserves his works. The art-ist‘s grave is in the garden of the Museum.

Bertel Thorvaldsen was born in 1770 in Copenhagen, where he grew up. His father, Gottskálk Þorvaldsson, was the son of a clergyman from Skagafjörður, north Iceland. Born in 1741, at a young age he went to Copenhagen to train as a wood-carver. In later years, he carved figureheads for ships, and also worked in stone. Bertel‘s mother, Karen Dagnes, was born in 1735 in Jutland, where her father was a deacon. The father’s Icelandic patronymic Þorvaldsson was adapted to Thorvald-sen. The couple lived in rather poor circumstances, but their son‘s artistic talent emerged in boyhood, and in 1781 he entered the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen at the age of only 11. He graduated in 1793. He received many prizes and awards for his art, including a travel grant which enabled him to go to Rome in 1796. Rome was at that time Europe’s mecca of culture and the arts, and Thorvaldsen lived there until 1838, establishing an international reputation. He then returned to Denmark, where he was welcomed as a national hero.

Bertel Thorvaldsen made over 90 free-standing sculptures, nearly 300 bas-reliefs and more than 150 busts, in addition to quantities of drawings, sketches and maquettes. The collection of the Thorvaldsen Museum includes plaster casts of most of his works, as well as many works chiselled in marble and cast in bronze. In his time Thorvaldsen was one of Europe‘s most popular sculptors, who received commissions from royalty and aristocracy all over the continent. Many of his leading works draw on themes and models from Graeco-Roman mythology, and the theories of Winckelmann and Lessing on the superiority of classical Greek sculpture, with the emphasis on the purity of the marble and perfection of form.

In Reykjavík three bronze casts of works by Thorvaldsen are on display in public spaces, and in addition three marble sculptures by the artist are in public col-lections, including Ganymede, on display here. In churchyards all over Iceland bas-reliefs by Thorvaldsen are seen on many gravestones, and Icelandic collec-tions have various replicas of his most popular works. For further information on Thorvaldsen‘s works in Icelandic collections, visit the museum website sarpur.is

Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844)

GanymedeOriginal made in Rome 1804

Marble, Height 135 cmNational Gallery of Iceland, LÍ 7016

Other works by Bertel Thorvaldsen in Reykjavík

Baptismal fontOriginal made in Rome 1827

Marble, Height 90 cmReykjavík Cathedral

The baptismal font of Reykjavík Cathedral is probably Thorvaldsen‘s best-known work in Iceland. The artist presented it to his ancestral land, Iceland, in 1827, as stat-ed in an inscription on the reverse. The font was installed in the Cathedral in 1839, and it may be deemed the Cathedral’s greatest treasure. The font is a square pedes-tal of white marble with reliefs on all sides and a floral wreath around the baptismal basin. On the front is a depiction of John the Baptist baptising Jesus in the Jordan river; on the north side the same two characters are seen in boyhood with the Virgin Mary; and on the south side Jesus Blessing the Little Children. On the reverse are three angels and an inscription. Similar, earlier fonts are found in Brahe-Trolleborg castle church in Fyn, Denmark, and Helligåndskirken in central Copenhagen.

ChristOriginal made in Rome 1821

Bronze, Height 200 cmAt Fossvogur Church

Near the entrance to Fossvogur Church stands a bronze cast of one of Thorvald-sen’s most popular sculptures, depicting the risen Christ with his arms spread wide, showing the nail-marks in his hands and feet. The work was completed in 1821, and in 1839 an over-sized marble version was installed above the altar of Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen. Replicas of the work are found in churches all over the world, varying in size and material. This cast, which stands in the Fossvogur cemetery in the area allocated for interment of ashes, was presented to Reykjavík Cemeteries in 1962 by the Cremation Society.

The collection of the National Gallery of Iceland includes one sculpture by Bertel Thorvaldsen, Ganymede. The original was made in Rome in 1804, only a year after he completed his Jason with the Golden Fleece, which heralded his period of fame as a sculptor in Rome. The National Gallery also has a pencil drawing of three heads by Thorvaldsen, and 66 prints of works by the artist.

In his sculpture of Ganymede, seen here, Thorvaldsen presents a figure from Greek mythology, the goblet and ewer signifying the character and the story behind the sculpture, while the headgear is an allusion to the fact that Ganymede was originally a Trojan from Phrygia, as stated in Homer’s Iliad. Zeus, the king of the gods, had many human attributes, among which was an admiration for beautiful young men – and when he saw (or heard of) Ganymede, his desire to have the boy with him was so overwhelming that he sent an eagle (or perhaps went himself in the form of an eagle, as Ovid says in his Metamorphoses) to snatch him and bring him to Mt. Olympus. Zeus granted Ganymede the gift of eternal youth and appointed him cup-bearer to the gods. Thorvaldsen depicts Ganymede holding out a goblet to the gods on Mt. Olympus. The work is not only an example of the sculptor’s neoclassical themes, but also embodies his fidelity and that of neoclassicists to the Ancients’ ideals of beauty, described by Jo-hann Joachim Winckelmann as “noble simplicity and quiet grandeur” in his Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst (Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture, 1755).

The origin of the work was that in the winter of 1803-04 Irina Vorontsova, a Russian countess, commissioned five sculptures from Thorvaldsen on themes drawn from Greek mythology, including the stories of Bacchus and Ganymede, as specified in their contract of February 1804.

Thorvaldsen’s Ganymede exists in two versions in addition to the one in the National Gallery of Iceland: in one Ganymede lifts up the ewer to pour wine into the goblet, while in the other he kneels to give Zeus’ eagle a drink. In addition a number of reliefs and drawings of Ganymede by Thorvaldsen are extant. This Ganymede was in the collection of the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, having been left uncompleted in his studio at his death, and later completed for the Museum. It was sold when the Museum acquired another exemplar in 1922. It was presented to the National Gallery of Iceland in 1927 by Johan Hansen, Icelandic consul in Copenhagen.

Bertel Thorvaldsen with the Sculpture HopeOriginal made at Nysø 1839

Bronze, Height 198 cm Hljómskálagarður park, Reykjavík

The first open-air work of art erected in Iceland was a bronze cast of a self-portrait by Thor-valdsen, which was ceremonially unveiled on the artist‘s birthday, 19 November 1875, on Austurvöllur in Reykjavík, adjacent to the Cathedral. The sculpture was the gift of Copen-hagen City Council to the people of Iceland to mark the millennium of the settlement of Iceland in 1874. The choice of the gift reflected the artist‘s Icelandic descent, and Icelanders were delighted to acquire this work by an artist whom they regarded as one of their own. Thorvaldsen had made the work in Denmark at the urging of Baroness Stampe, although he was said to be most reluctant to make a self-portrait. In the sculpture we see Thorvaldsen at work with his hammer and chisel, apparently having taken a break, leaning against his sculpture of the goddess Hope.

In 1931 the Thorvaldsen sculpture was removed from Austurvöllur to make way for a statue of Jón Sigurðsson, hero of the Icelandic campaign for self-determination, by sculptor Einar Jónsson (1874-1954). Thorvaldsen was moved to Hljómskálagarður park, where he looks out over the Lake from a tall pedestal. Another copy of the statue may be seen in Central Park, New York. In the apartment of sculptor Einar Jónsson, on the top floor of the Einar Jónsson Museum, this piece may be seen, a plaster work about 30 cm in height.

Mercury about to Kill ArgusOriginal made in Rome 1818

Marble, Height 174.5 cm Commercial College of Iceland

In 1989 the marble sculpture Mercury about to Kill Argus was placed in the keeping of the Commercial College. The work was a gift to the Icelandic nation from businessman Svend Kragh Petersen. The original was made by Thorvaldsen in Rome in 1818, and this marble replica was made by the Thorvaldsen Museum in 1860. It remained in the museum until 1944, and was sold when the museum acquired another marble exemplar from 1822.

Mercury was the messenger of the gods, and the Roman god of commerce and business. Mercury is said to have been sent by his father, Jupiter, to free his mistress who was being held by the monstrous giant Argus, who had eyes all over his body. Mercury plays his pipes to Argus until he grows sleepy and closes his many eyes. At that point Mercury grasps his sword to slay the giant.

Adonis Original made in Rome 1808

Bronze, Height 186 cm Hallargarður park, Reykjavík

In the Hallargarður park, at the corner of Skothúsvegur and Fríkirkjuvegur, stands a bronze cast of Adonis, which Thorvaldsen completed in 1808. Adonis is the most beautiful and sought-after young man in Greek mythology, the favourite of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, and the cause of a feud between her and Persephone, goddess of the underworld. The bronze belongs to the City of Reykjavík, which had the cast made in 1973 and erected it in the park a year later. The Glyptotek in Munich has the sculpture in marble, commissioned by Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria in 1808.