ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI
XLII
ANALECTA ROMANA
INSTITUTI DANICI
XLII
2017
ROMAE MMXVII ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLII © 2017 Accademia di Danimarca ISSN 2035-2506
Published with the support of a grant from: Det Frie Forskningsråd / Kultur og Kommunikation
Scientific Board
Karoline Prien Kjeldsen (Bestyrelsesformand, Det Danske Institut i Rom) Jens Bertelsen (Bertelsen & Scheving Arkitekter) Maria Fabricius Hansen (Københavns Universitet) Peter Fibiger Bang (Københavns Universitet) Thomas Harder (Forfatter/writer/scrittore) Michael Herslund (Copenhagen Business School) Hanne Jansen (Københavns Universitet) Kurt Villads Jensen (Syddansk Universitet) Erik Vilstrup Lorenzen (Den Danske Ambassade i Rom) Mogens Nykjær (Aarhus Universitet) Vinnie Nørskov (Aarhus Universitet) Niels Rosing-Schow (Det Kgl. Danske Musikkonservatorium) Lene Schøsler (Københavns Universitet)
Editorial Board Marianne Pade (Chair of Editorial Board, Det Danske Institut i Rom) Patrick Kragelund (Danmarks Kunstbibliotek) Sine Grove Saxkjær (Det Danske Institut i Rom) Gert Sørensen (Københavns Universitet) Anna Wegener (Det Danske Institut i Rom) Maria Adelaide Zocchi (Det Danske Institut i Rom)
Analecta Romana Instituti Danici. — Vol. I (1960) — . Copenhagen: Munksgaard. From 1985: Rome, «L’ERMA» di Bretschneider. From 2007 (online): Accademia di Danimarca
ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI encourages scholarly contributions within the Academy’s research fields. All contributions will be peer reviewed. Manuscripts to be considered for publication should be sent to: [email protected] Authors are requested to consult the journal’s guidelines at www.acdan.it Contents
Sine Grove Saxkjær: The Emergence and Marking of Ethnic Identities: Case Studies from the Sibaritide Region 7
Alessia Di Santi: From Egypt to Copenhagen. The Provenance of the Portraits of Augustus, Livia, and Tiberius at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 33
Lars Boje Mortensen: The Canons of the Medieval Literature from the Middle Ages to the Twenty-First Century 47
Søren Kaspersen: Body Language and Theology in the Sistine Ceiling. A Reconsideration of the Augustinian Thesis 65
Nicholas Stanley-Price: The Myth of Catholic Prejudice against Protestant Funerals in Eighteenth- Century Rome 89
Annika Skaarup Larsen: Bertel Thorvaldsen and Zeuxis: The Assembling Artist 101
Kaspar Thormod: Depicting People in Rome: Contemporary Examples of Portaiture in the Work of International Artists 119
Bertel Thorvaldsen and Zeuxis The Assembling Artist
by Annika Skaarup Larsen
Abstract. This paper seeks to offer an insight into the drawing practices of Bertel Thorvaldsen by drawing an analogy between the sculptor and the mythic working process of the ancient Greek painter Zeuxis (5th century BC). Zeuxis, unable to find a suitable model for his painting of the ideal beauty of Helen of Troy, selects from five young women their most perfect feature and combines them to create his own image of universal beauty. The biographer of Thorvaldsen, J. M. Thiele, writes how the artist modelled his Venus on 30 live models, an anecdote that mirrors Zeuxis’ quest to extract perfect beauty from imperfect nature. But Thorvaldsen’s models were not only the men and women he brought to his studio. His drawn sketches testify that for inspiration as well as for specific compositional solutions he looked to the admired art of Antiquity and his own contemporaries. These external origins challenge a present day notion of artistic originality, but for the neoclassical artist the act of copying, or imitating, was closely connected to that of inspiration and invention. By framing Thorvaldsen as a 19th century Zeuxis, his creative process can be viewed in light of an academic tradition that relates the idea of originality, not, as we have come to expect of art today, to the invention of something hitherto unseen, but to a conscious strategy of selection and assemblage.
Introduction: Thorvaldsen as Zeuxis for artistic creation and the complex concept In his Natural History (33 AC), Pliny the Elder of mimesis promoted by European classicism. describes the mythic working process of the It lay at the foundation of the teachings of ancient Greek painter Zeuxis (5th century BC) the art academies that arose all over Europe when composing a painting of the beautiful during the 18th century, where natural and Helen of Troy for the temple of Hera Lakinia artistic models alike were copied and imitated at Akragas. Unable to find a suitable model for in search of perfect form. This paper seeks his image of the universal beauty of Helen, to offer an insight into the work of the he selects from five young maidens their most Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770- admirable features and combines them in his 1844) by drawing an analogy between his painting, thus achieving an ideal not found in creative process and that of the ancient Greek nature.1 Pliny also writes of Zeuxis that he painter.3 Using Zeuxis as a model will allow “robbed his masters of their art and carried for a reading of Thorvaldsen, that includes it off with him”2, thereby adding another his extensive use of known visual models, source to the composite ideal, that Zeuxis, while avoiding the temptation of categorizing and since him a long line of artists, strived to Thorvaldsen as merely an uninspired copycat. visualize. This method of creative assemblage Thus, the first section of the paper describes has since the Renaissance stood as a model the teaching at the Copenhagen Academy
1 Plinius 1952, 308-9, § 64. That the image is of Hel- 3 My thanks to Maria Fabricius Hansen from the en of Troy is not mentioned by Pliny, but is speci- University of Copenhagen for her help and guidan- fied by the translator. The different versions of the ce in relation to, first, my thesis, and since this legend are discussed in: Mansfield 2007, 19-38. paper. Also to Ernst Jonas Bencard from Thor- 2 Ibid. 306-7, § 62. valdsens Museum for taking the time to discuss 102 Annika Skaarup Larsen of Art, and the validation that the myth of the motifs chosen by both Thorvaldsen Zeuxis offered the academic system, which and his rival, the Italian sculptor Antonio will serve as a basis for a further analysis of Canova.8 In many cases, however, the many Thorvaldsen’s creative process and use of visual models are mentioned in relation to drawn sketches. specific works by Thorvaldsen and treated The primary object of study will be as somewhat isolated occurrences. Only Jan Thorvaldsen’s drawings. Since paper became Zahle relates, in his book on Thorvaldsen’s commercially available in the 15th century, extensive collection of plaster casts, the many drawing has often been theorized in European cases where Thorvaldsen found solutions to art history as a document of artistic creation specific compositional problems in his plaster and as the most direct link between inner copies, to a discussion on Thorvaldsen’s use of idea and outer image. This also shapes the models in a broader perspective.9 It is the aim reading of Thorvaldsen’s drawings. When of this paper to bring together these diverse Julius Lange wrote about this subject in inspirations and discuss in more general terms 1886, he made a clear distinction between the what role the act of copying or imitation sculptor’s finished works in marble, which, played in Thorvaldsen’s creative process. A writes Lange, one might sometimes find to be reality of many visual models might challenge a bit cold, and his drawn sketches, in which a present day notion of artistic originality, one enters into “a confidential conversation but by framing Thorvaldsen as a neoclassical with the artist himself ”, and “finds him at Zeuxis his artistic practices can be viewed the moment of creation.”4 Lange credits this in light of an academic tradition that relates coolness in the finished works to a demand the idea of originality, not, as we have come for “purity of form”, present at the time in to expect of art today, to the invention of both painting and sculpture, which impacted something hitherto unseen, but to a conscious the way Thorvaldsen executed his ideas in strategy of selection and assemblage. marble.5 Such a distinction has continued to shape the way the sculptor’s drawings are Zeuxis and the Art Academies presented.6 This framing of Thorvaldsen’s The myth of Zeuxis is important, according sketches as particularly subjective or personal to professor Elizabeth C. Mansfield, because is challenged by the fact that in many cases it differs from many of the ancient myths Thorvaldsen found his ideas – for subjects as used to explain the rules of classical art. well as specific compositional solutions – in Where creativity is otherwise characterized as the work of other artists, both ancient and a result of emotional or corporeal stimuli, the contemporary. Zeuxian myth favours an intellectual rather The use of known visual models has not than emotional approach to art making.10 A gone unnoticed in the extensive writing on central ambition of the Art Academies that Thorvaldsen. The different antique models first developed in Italy during the 16th century, that Thorvaldsen imitated in his own work and later spread all over Europe, was the have been defined and discussed, not least elevation of the status of art to a respected in relation to the early masterpiece, Jason intellectual activity, as opposed to a mere and the Golden Fleece.7 That Thorvaldsen craft. The ancient myth of Zeuxis helped took inspiration from the drawings of his legitimize this objective. Moreover, according contemporaries, Asmus Jacob Carstens and to Mansfield, Pliny’s account of Zeuxis’ life John Flaxman, is also well described in the highlights a number of the qualities that literature, as is the general overlap between academic training was designed to enhance.
Thorvaldsen’s drawings with me, and for sugge- his sculptures. sting that the linear drawing style of John Flaxman 7 An example of this from Thorvaldsen’s own time and Asmus Jacob Carstens not solely be read as an is Brun, discussed below. A recent example is the expression of ideal and unchanging form, but as museum journal Meddelelser fra Thorvaldsens Museum open-ended designs, that might spike in the viewer 2003, where several articles discuss Jason and his re- a desire for completion. lationship with Antiquity. 4 Lange 1886, 214. 8 See note 40-42 about Thorvaldsen and Canova. 5 Ibid. 111-112. About Flaxman, see note 44. About Carstens e.g. 6 E.g. Christensen 1918, 1-2, who views Thorvald- Miss 2003, 11-17. sen’s drawings as “fresh and lively” sketches, that 9 Zahle 2012, 136-144. were since tamed to fit the demand for harmony in 10 Mansfield 2007, 7. Bertel Thorvaldsen and Zeuxis 103
Each of Zeuxis’ paintings celebrates another nature, meaning live male models. At this level aspect of the artist’s genius such as his the various types of artist were differentiated, originality, the moral delivered in his work, and and sculptors such as Thorvaldsen would his facility with illusionism. He often attended now work in clay, shaping reliefs. The specific competitions with other artists, an activity craft of marble cutting was not taught at the later echoed in the competition system at the academy, and for Thorvaldsen this would academies. Most importantly, the method have to wait until he reached Rome. There, he of selection and assemblage employed by would use plaster casts of antique sculpture as Zeuxis in the legend of the five maidens is models to obtain the right skills, continuing the mirrored in the pedagogical program of the practice of copying that had been ingrained in academies.11 Adding to this, Pliny declares him at the Academy. that Zeuxis “robbed his masters of their art and carried it off with him”, an information Models, living and dead that supports the later academic doctrine of In the Model School the young student studied imitation. These stories promote a specific the surface and shape of young men posing understanding of the artist’s role, where the on a podium in front of the students. These particularly artistic or inspired component to models would often leave something to be art making is expressed through a creative act desired, which meant that the student would of selection and assembling as performed by have to correct the appearance according to the Zeuxis. ideal copied in the previous training.13 Often Like many of the 18th century Academies the model would be placed in positions known of Art, the Copenhagen Academy, (called from famous ancient works, underlining the Maler- Billedhugger- og Bygnings-Academiet) connection. He would also study the body’s was founded on the principles of the Parisian inner workings in anatomy lessons. These two Académie Royale.12 The training program sides of the exploration of the human body issued from the Parisian academy was based – the outer form and the inner mechanics on renaissance studio practices, featuring – also had roots in a renaissance tradition. continuous exercises in drawing along with Frederika Jacobs describes in her article ”(Dis) training in anatomy, perspective and the assembling: Marsyas, Michelangelo, and the liberal arts. In Copenhagen, the student Accademia del Disegno” (2002) how studies in would first enter the lower level Drawing anatomy were embedded in academic theory Schools. Here, he would (no women were from the early Italian beginning. The reason allowed at the Academy in Copenhagen until for this was found in another ancient myth 1908) study drawings books, in which famous told by Ovid: the story of the satyr Marsyas, works of art were dissected into parts and who loses to Apollo in a music competition, proportions, and copy engravings of works and as punishment is stripped of his skin from the classicist canon or drawings made by and left to bleed until he at last transforms their professors. At the next level, they would into the “clearest river in all Phrygia”.14 copy plaster casts of single body parts (hands, This mythic, open and exposed body was in feet, heads), and full statues, mostly casts the 16th century, writes Jacobs, an image of of antique masterpieces in the Academy’s artistic creativity and transformation, as well collection. These endless drawing exercises as of the importance of anatomical insight were aimed at training the student’s hand when trying to compose a lifelike figure.15 In in reproducing on paper the correct, firm renaissance theory, anatomizing was viewed shapes, that were admired the time, while at as a crucial step in the creative process, a the same time presenting him with important precondition for the creative selection and artistic models from a glorified past. Through assemblage that ensured an aesthetically the myth of Zeuxis, this process was elevated perfect and anatomically correct body. This to a conscious act of isolation and study that process – mirrored by that employed by would later aid the student in his own artistry. Zeuxis – also involved the surviving ancients The talented student would then advance to statues so admired by renaissance artists. the Model School, where he would draw from Because the antique works often survived
11 Ibid. 57. 14 Jacobs 2002, 429. 12 Fuchs & Salling 2004, 51-53. 15 Ibid. 434-436. 13 Fernow 1806, 24. 104 Annika Skaarup Larsen in fragmentary form, they lent themselves creating his own compositions. From a friend, easily to the process of unification that the sculptor Michael Christoph Wohler (1754- was the objective of renaissance artists and 1806), he borrowed some half sized copies anatomists alike. Simultaneously they worked, of antique works that Wohler had made in writes Jacobs, as a catalyst for new and original Rome and brought back to Copenhagen in compositions. For the 16th century artist, this fragments: was certainly the case of the Belverede Torso, endlessly copied and admired by artists and In particular I used, in this way, The a continuous inspiration to the famous Borghese Gladiator for my studies. Michelangelo.16 From 1789, a plaster copy Through this continuous exercise of my was part of the collection at the Copenhagen imagination of picturing all objects in the Academy, brought back from Rome along round, and impress well upon myself their with many others by Thorvaldsen’s teacher form and contour from all sides, so that Nicolai Abildgaard (1743-1809). Perhaps the anatomical knowledge, I already had, these additions were important to Abildgaard, supported me, I finally arrived at a point, suggests Thorvaldsen’s biographer J. M. Thiele, where I, once I had studied it thoroughly because of his favourite student.17 in different views and positions from all A description from the Copenhagen sides, and sometimes used it in my own Academy demonstrates how the significance inventions, could take a part and draw it of these artistic strategies lasted well into quite accurately from the mind in the most the 18th century. It comes from the Danish- eminent positions and functions; and what German artist Asmus Jacob Carstens (1754- I once had understood in this way, I did not 1798), who attended the Academy from easily forget. Thus, I studied all parts of 1776-1781 and followed Professor Andreas the body several times with the application Weidenhaupts anatomy lessons in the into my own inventions, and thereby my winters of 1776-1777. Carstens describes imagination gained the practice and skill, how the professor would isolate a body part which other artists only bring to their and then explain it in relation to a skeleton hand and eye by copying; which has since and an écorche – a flayed figure – of his own been very useful for me in the easiness of design. The next night he would show the inventing and composing.19 same part on a live model, demonstrating to the viewers its form in a resting position Though Carstens did not have much regard and in motion. These lessons, along with the for the endless copying that constituted the continuous study of antique statues, gave the practical exercises at the academies, his own young Carstens an idea of the human body methods did not differ much from those of the and of beautiful form.18 The account from official program. His models were the same: Carstens demonstrates how the live body body parts taken from prominent prototypes was studied just as the ancient statues in the such as The Borghese Gladiator or studied in drawing books: as units that could potentially Weidenhaupt’s anatomy lessons. Moreover, be dislodged and then reintegrated into a new Carstens describes the place that these whole. Moreover, Carstens then explains how fragments held in the artistic process, both in he would use the knowledge he had gathered terms of correcting the form in accordance from Weidenhaupt’s anatomy lessons when with nature and a classical ideal, but also as a
16 Ibid. 442-443. und einigemal die Anwendung davon in eigenen 17 Thiele 1851, I, 21. Erfindungen gemacht hatte, nachher in den- vor 18 Fernow 1806, 21. nehmsten Stellungen und Verrichtungen ziemlich 19 Ibid. 25. My translation of: “Vorzüglich benuzte richtig aus der Vorstellung aufzeichnen konte; und ich auf diese Art zu meinen Studien den Borghe- was ich auf diese Weise einmal recht begriffen hatte, sischen Fechter. Durch diese stete Uebung meiner vergas ich nicht leicht wieder. So studierte ich alle Einbildungskraft mir alle Gegenstände rund vor- Theile des Körpers mehrmal mit der Anwendung zustellen, und mir Formen und Umrisse derselben in eigenen Erfindungen durch, und erwarb dadurch von allen Seiten wohl einzuprägen, wobei mich die meiner Vorstellungskraft eben die Uebung und Fer- anatomischen Kenntnisse, die ich bereits hatte, un- tigkeit, welche andrere Künstler durch vieles Nach- terstützen, gelangte ich endlich dahin, dass ich einen zeichnen blos in Hand und Augebringen; welsches Theil, wenn ich ihn einmal in versciedenen Ansich- mir in der Folge für die Leichtigkeit im Erfinden ten und Lagen von allen Seiten recht durchstudiert, und Komponiren sehr nüzlich gewesen ist.” Bertel Thorvaldsen and Zeuxis 105 catalyst for the creation of new compositions. In a humorous critique of the professors at The Zeuxian method is then described by the Academy Thorvaldsen reports how he Carstens in practical terms and presented as was encouraged to copy the antique models the conscious creative act of splitting up and adding “the artistic swing”, while his own reassembling in new, inventive designs. true perception of what was before him was corrected.23 So though Thorvaldsen shared Thorvaldsen in Copenhagen the admiration for the ancients with his Thorvaldsen entered the Drawing School teachers, he did not necessarily agree with the at the Copenhagen Academy in 1781, and way they were interpreted. Little is actually must have been met by the training program known about the relationship between outlined above. He advanced through the Wiedewelt and Thorvaldsen. Abildgaard, on levels, reaching the Plaster School in 1785 the other hand, seems to have take special and the Model School in 1786. Though there interest in the young Thorvaldsen, making are no surviving drawings from this early sure he stayed in school and later making time in his training, we know from Thiele him his assistant when decorating the former that the young student was skilled at the Levetzau’s Palace, today Christian VIII’s perfectionist and highly illusionistic drawing Palace, for Prince Frederik in the 1790s.24 style that was promoted by the Academy. He Abildgaard’s admiration for the tradition was writes how Thorvaldsen’s drawings would no less than Wiedewelt’s, and the Zeuxian show almost no contour, to a point where a method of copying and combining is essential contour was barely visible, and that he would to his work. His paintings would often include work with diligence when copying his figures figures, positions, or movements appropriated “from head to the toe”.20 Thorvaldsen is thus from the grand masters. presented as a serious and hard working artist who met the Academy’s expectations. Thiele Zeuxis applied: Peter and John Healing a Lame Man also informs us that Thorvaldsen sought (1793) out ways to improve outside of the official The influence of Abildgaard on the young training, getting together with artist friends Thorvaldsen is found in a drawing that the to draw from the female nude and practice sculptor made in preparation for the relief composing. In relation to this, we learn that Peter and John Healing a Lame Man, for which Thorvaldsen was very talented at designing Thorvaldsen won the prestigious gold medal compositions, and would often finish quickly in 1793. The drawing (Fig. 1) is executed in while the others were still debating the best a style that bears resemblance to the drawing course of action.21 These skills came in handy style of his teacher, where dark wash is used at the biannual medal competitions, where to create dramatic contrasts. Chris Fisher has Thorvaldsen won the small gold medal in demonstrated how Thorvaldsen found a model 1791 and the large gold medal in 1793. for the composition in Raphael’s treatment of The Academy was at the time influenced the story, while the specific gesture of Peter by the neoclassicism of the sculptor Johannes is from The Death of Ananias in The Sistine Wiedewelt (1731-1802) and the painter Chapel. The Academy owned reproductions Nicolai Abildgaard. Wiedewelt had in 1762 of both designs, and Thorvaldsen would likely published a treatise repeating in Danish the have seen or copied these during his training.25 famous ideas of the German art historian Besides the use of admired models as a basis Johann Joachim Winckelmann. In this, he for the composition, this drawing also shares discusses the relationship between nature and another feature with those of Abildgaard. The the ideal, between the copy and imitation of painter’s figures often appear oddly elongated the ancients, all while highlighting a select and fragmented as if the creative process of number of antique sculptures from the assembly has not yet been erased from the final established classical canon. Jan Zahle suggests image. An example taken from Abildgaard’s that a remark Thorvaldsen later made to Thiele early work is The Wounded Philoctetes (1775), could be aimed at Wiedewelt’s teaching.22 today at the National Gallery of Denmark.
20 Thiele 1851, 27-28. tique models. Ibid. 126-135. 21 Ibid. 23 Thiele 1851, I, 16-17. 22 Zahle 2012, 128. See his discussion on the differ- 24 Ibid. 21, 38-39. ence in Wiedewelt’s and Thorvaldsen’s use of an- 25 Fischer 2008, 15-16. The two prints are reproduced 106 Annika Skaarup Larsen
Fig. 1. B. Thorvaldsen: Peter and John Healing a Lame Man, 1793, pencil and sepia on paper. 19,3 x 24,7 cm, inv. no.: NysøIr, The Thorvaldsen Collection at Nysø (photo: Thorvaldsens Museum).
Fig. 2. N. Abildgaard: Sitting nude male with a poodle and agave, 1794-1796, Pencil, pen, brown ink, brush and brown wash, 151 x 216 mm, inv. no.: KKSgb3985, The National Gallery of Denmark (photo: SMK foto). Bertel Thorvaldsen and Zeuxis 107
Fig. 3 B. Thorvaldsen: Priam Pleads with Achilles for Hector’s Body, 1868-1870, executed by Georg Chri- stian Freund under the supervision of C.C. Peters after Thorvaldsen’s original plaster model 1815, Marble. 96,0 x 198,5 cm, inv. no. A775, Thorvaldsens Museum (photo: Thorvaldsens Museum).
The distorted upper body of the tormented described this particular configuration – the hero is modelled on the ancient Belvedere left leg stretched and the right leg bent, so that Torso, but the overly stretched back and the the knee is visible above the left thigh – and dislocated limbs gives the muscular body a the numerous times that Thorvaldsen chose less than ideal appearance. Another drawing, this for his relief-figures. A famous example dated to around the time when Thorvaldsen is the work Priam Pleads with Achilles for Hector’s helped Abildgaard decorate Prince Frederik’s Body from 1815 (Fig. 3), where it is given Palace, demonstrates that though the drama to the nonchalant hero in the centre of the lessened over the years, Abildgaard’s drawn scene. Lange calls this a plastic formula, one that bodies kept this look of fragmentation (Fig. 2). the artist would use and reuse when wishing The influence of Abildgaard in Thorvaldsen’s to describe his sitting figures harmoniously sketch is most evident in the long, broad back in the two dimensions that the relief allows.27 of the spectator to the right, and the stretched Though the influence of Abildgaard is often body of the lame man, whose lower body is said to have worn off, the use of these artistic strangely disconnected from the upper body, formulas evidently stayed with Thorvaldsen his elevated right leg hinged to the hip in the and this particular one is found many times wrong place. But where the teacher sometimes throughout his creations. carried this trait to his paintings, Thorvaldsen corrected it in the relief that he submitted for Jason: The last finished antique work the 1793 competition. Now each body part is The relief Peter and John Healing a Lame Man integrated fully into the overall composition. earned Thorvaldsen the gold medal, and with This sitting position shared by Abildgaard’s this, his official academic training ended. drawn male figure and Thorvaldsen’s lame The next step for an ambitious young artist man is often used by the painter in his was to travel to Rome, the cultural capital drawings.26 Though Thorvaldsen never copied of Europe at the time, which Thorvaldsen the fragmented look into his own men and was able to do in 1796 on a grant from the women, this position reappears many times Copenhagen Academy. Travelling to Rome in the work of the sculptor. Julius Lange has meant the chance to see all the famous works
in the article. Acqu. no KKSgb3638, KKSgb3986, KKSgb3982. 26 Examples from The Collection of Prints and 27 Lange 1886, 177-185. Drawings at the Danish National Gallery include: 108 Annika Skaarup Larsen he had studied in prints and plaster at home, in the collection of plaster cast. Much later, now in their original setting, and the first years Thorvaldsen himself credited his antique after Thorvaldsen’s arrival in Rome in 1797 sources when he told one of his students that, are often summed up as a time of gathering when working on Jason, he would run back inspiration and finding his feet. He practised and forth to the Vatican, taking in all he could the art of marble cutting by copying antique from the ancients.31 busts and studied sculptures and decorations A description from Friederike Brun, from the famous villas of Rome, copying Thorvaldsen’s friend and admirer, of her them in drawings where he would ignore the experience of first seeing the work is a good damages caused by time, thus instinctively representation of the contemporary view on continuing the act of unification he knew imitation: from his training at home.28 The literature on Thorvaldsen’s first major His Jason ascended the depths of Antiquity, work in Rome, Jason and the Golden Fleece, is and appeared suddenly before us, a vision extensive, and the topic discussed is often from the most glorious age of art; and its relationship to Antiquity. It will be briefly never can I forget the blissful feeling, with described once more because the making of which the sight of this high work of art Jason illustrates so well the young Thorvaldsen’s filled me: it stood, once again endowed method of creative accumulation, and because with spirit before me, what I thought had the reactions to the sculpture demonstrate the been forever lost in the past, the high contemporary audience’s view on imitation. heroic ideal, in all it’s simplicity, strength, The idea for the unusual choice of subject calmness and greatness! seems not to have come from an antique source, but a contemporary one. In Rome, (…) – Jason is entirely himself; only related Thorvaldsen was introduced to Carstens, to Apollo, but by nothing more than whose work Thorvaldsen had already similarity.32 admired in Copenhagen.29 In the last years of his life, Carstens was working on a series of Brun easily identifies the references to the drawings illustrating the Argonauts traveling antique models, but sees this not as an act of to Colchis to help Jason secure the Golden copying, but rather as a way of writing oneself Fleece and reclaim his kingdom. One drawing into an important tradition. She also calls Jason shows Jason returning to his men waiting by “the last finished antique work”33. The use of the ship, proudly showing off the Golden antique models was a way of indicating affinity Fleece that he has managed to procure from with an esteemed prototype and addressing the dragon, with a pose very similar to that of an enlightened audience, one that valued the Thorvaldsen’s Jason.30 references while still expecting an original In addition to Carstens’ design, piece of art. Brun praises Thorvaldsen for his Thorvaldsen’s Jason is often linked to two revival of the antique hero, and associates Jason antique works, Apollo Belvedere and Doryphoros, with the famous Apollo, though emphasizing two of the most celebrated works from the that it is entirely its own.34 As described above, classical canon. Thorvaldsen would have seen the process of selection from nature and the in person, and probably copied on paper, the art of the past was legitimized by the legend famous statue of Apollo, first as a fragmented of Zeuxis and transformed into a conscious reproduction in one of the Academy’s drawing creative act. A hundred years later, Emil books and later as a three-dimensional copy Hannover describes in more general terms
28 Eg. inventory no. C769 as mentioned in the text in ter der Kunst, und nie werde ich das selige Gefühl Thorvaldsens Museum’s online catalogue, accessed vergessen, mit welchem der Anblick dieses hohen August 25th, 2016. Kunstwerkes mich erfüllte: es stand wieder neu be- 29 Thiele 1851, I, 28 and 103-109. seelt vor mir da, was ich in den Schoß der Vorzeit 30 Today in the Collection of Prints and Drawings at auf ewig versenkt glaubte, das hohe Helden-Ideal the National Gallery of Denmark. in aller Einfalt, Kraft, Ruh‘ und Größe! (…) – Alle- 31 Zahle 2012, 98. in Jason ist ganz er selbst; nur dem Apoll verwandt, 32 Brun 1812. My translation of: “ – Sein Jason entsti- doch um nichts mehr als Geschlechtsähnlichkeit.” eg den Tiefen des Alterthums, und trat plötzlich vor 33 Brun 1812, “die zuletzt fertig gewordene Antike!”. uns hin, eine Erscheinung aus dem schönsten Al- 34 See also the discussion in Zahle 2012, 127-147. Bertel Thorvaldsen and Zeuxis 109
Fig. 4. A. Canova: Theseus Defeats the Centaur, (1804– Fig. 5. B. Thorvaldsen: A Hero (Theseus?) Fighting with a 1819), Marble, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (pho- Centaur, pencil on paper. Inscription in pen, 131 x190 to from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons. mm, inv. no.: C563,4r, Thorvaldsens Museum (photo: wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canova_-_Theseus_defea- Thorvaldsens Museum) ts_the_centaur.jpg).
the sculptor’s use of models, highlighting the artists also provided ideas and inspiration uniqueness of the work and style: for new work. Carstens was an important influence when developing Jason, and in many Everything that his genius received from other instances it is in the work of his rival, outside – impressions from Nature and the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757- impression from Antiquity – he recreated 1822), that Thorvaldsen found his subjects. in his own image. Everything was brought One example is found in a series of drawings together in a higher unity, in one great that he produced around 1806 of Theseus, synthesis: his style.35 a mythic king of Athens, slaying a centaur. These are most likely preparatory sketches Between the making of Jason and these words for a monumental sculpture commissioned from Hannover lies a century where artists had by Giovanni Raimondo Torlonia. It was abandoned many of the artistic conventions to counter Canova’s dramatic Hercules and of neoclassicism, and had moved out into Lichas, today in the Galleria nazionale d’arte nature in the quest for original subjects to moderna in Rome, so it seems likely that depict. He emphasises the artist’s own style, Thorvaldsen would initially try to challenge which brings together his impressions from the overwhelming presence of Canova’s nature and from Antiquity, two conventional sculpture with his own battle scene. A few inspirations for the artist working in the years earlier, Canova had finished another classical tradition. But Hannover, like many monumental sculpture depicting Theseus writers on Thorvaldsen, leaves out another battling a centaur (Fig. 4), and it must be from important source of inspiration, which are here that Thorvaldsen took the idea as well as the works of contemporary artists. the general configuration for his own version.36 In a pencil sketch (Fig. 5) he has outlined the overall features of the composition: Theseus to the left, his chest facing us while his face is Theseus (and Canova’s Theseus) turned towards the centaur that he his holding In search for themes to depict, the sculptor did down using his knee and the weight of his own not just look to the ancients. Contemporary body. The placement of the centaur below the
35 Hannover 1907, 5. My translation of: “Alt, hvad Billed. Altsammen gik det op i en højere Enhed, i hans Genius modtog udefra – Indtryk af Naturen en eneste stor Synthese: hans Stil”. og Indtryk af Antiken – det skabte den om i sit eget 36 Stig Miss in Campbell & Carlson 1993, 317-318. 110 Annika Skaarup Larsen
Fig. 6 B. Thorvaldsen: A Hero (Theseus?) Fighting with a Centaur. c. 1806, pencil, pen and ink on paper, 108 x 172 mm, inv. no.: C9, Thorvaldsens Museum (photo: Thorvaldsens Museum).
Fig. 7 B. Thorvaldsen: A Hero (Theseus?) Fighting with a Centaur, c. 1806, carbonpencil, pen and ink on paper, 135 x 155 mm, inv. no.: C10r, Thorvaldsens Museum (photo: Thorvaldsens Museum).
Fig. 8 B. Thorvaldsen: A Hero (Theseus?) Fighting with a Minotaur, c. 1806, pencil, pen and brown ink with grey wash on paper, 493 x 614 mm, inv. no.: C702r, Thorvaldsens Museum (photo: Thorvaldsens Museum). Bertel Thorvaldsen and Zeuxis 111 hero’s knee reveal that Thorvaldsen integrated subject and composition. Examples include another model into the composition, an Hebe from 1806 and 1816 (in Thorvaldsens ancient emblem of the Persian god Mithras Museum, there is a drawn copy of Canova’s slaying a bull, often found on antique shrines Hebe (1805), where the goddess’ chest is in Rome.37 covered), Cupid and Psyche (c. 1807), and From these two models Thorvaldsen notably The Three Graces (1817-19), where developed his version of the scene. An easily Thorvaldsen copied a central feature from noticeable difference from Canova’s sculpture Canova’s version (1813-16): the placement of to the pencil sketch is the position of the right the sister in the middle behind the two others arm that is not raised behind the head, but facing the viewer as opposed to antique pulled back as to gain more force in the stroke. tradition. This obvious thematic overlap In two other sketches in pen and ink you see has not been overlooked in the literature that Thorvaldsen experimented with the arm, on Thorvaldsen, though Canova is rarely letting it shift between raised and lowered (Fig. mentioned on the list of Thorvaldsen’s direct 6 & 7). The lines and tensions that primarily inspirations. On the contrary, the treatment seem to have occupied the sculptor are the of the relationship between the two is most placement of the right arm, the direction often focused on rivalry and the differences in of the torso, turned either towards his style. Thiele explains that Thorvaldsen, when opponent or away from it, and the direction he did not approve of Canova’s treatment of the centaur’s upper body. Together, these of a subject, would make his own version to drawings demonstrate Thorvaldsen’s use of show his point of view.39 Thorvaldsen would the medium to develop his form – working deliberately repeat the themes of Canova from a general composition and after in his own style, a more chaste version to correcting details, changing directions and oppose Canova’s sensual sculptures.40 Other positions of isolated body parts. related explanations for the differences in An additional three large drawings of this style are nationality and religion.41 Regardless scene exist, and here Thorvaldsen has worked of Thorvaldsen’s intentions it is impossible in much greater detail, which potentially to ignore Canova as a major inspiration implies that a decision regarding the and in several cases a direct influence on composition had been made.38 One of these the conceptualization of new work. This is is a large, finely detailed ink drawing. The evident from the drawings of Theseus and the opponent is now the Minotaur, the beast with centaur, where the creative starting point for the body of a man and the head and lower both theme and configuration was an existing body of a bull that terrorized Athens (Fig. 8). sculpture by Canova. The use of grey wash as a painterly effect; the precise rendering of contour and the detailed Venus: A composed goddess description of the hero’s determined face The Zeuxian method is nowhere more present are unusual features among Thorvaldsen’s in Thorvaldsen’s work than with the creation drawings, which were more often focused on of Venus holding an Apple (1813-1816). It the overall features of entire compositions. starts with the very subject: where Zeuxis was Though this could be indication that trying to represent the most beautiful woman Thorvaldsen was nearing an expression that in the world; Thorvaldsen sought to create a he liked, a sculpture of Theseus battling the contemporary version of the goddess of love Minotaur was never realised, and Thorvaldsen and fertility. This particular version of Venus seems to have abandoned Theseus and treats precisely her beauty as a subject. The instead chosen Venus and Mars as potential apple she is contemplating is her prize for subjects for the commission. In the end the winning a divine beauty contest judged by the commission was never completed. human prince Paris. Venus was a well known Though a sculpture of Theseus battling subject, and the most important antique the Minotaur was not made, many other varieties were the famous Capitoline Venus sculptures by Thorvaldsen show the direct and Venus Medici, both of which Thorvaldsen influence of Canova on both choice of had replicas of in his collection of plaster
37 Ibid. Miss refers to Peter Gerlach. 40 E.g. an English reviewer cited in Kjøbenhavns-Posten 38 Ibid. 15.12.1832, 1003. 39 Thiele 1832, II, 136-137. 41 E.g. Jørnæs 2007, 123-125; Licht 1992. 112 Annika Skaarup Larsen casts.42 In 1811, Canova had made his own three years to finish because of the extensive modernized version of the sensual goddess, study of the female form. Thorvaldsen is thus which was to replace the Medici Venus at the further connected to Zeuxis, mirroring the Uffizi in Florenze that had been taken to ancient painter’s intellectual treatment of the France by Napoleon. These sculptures might visual reality he sought to correct. Another have had a general influence on Thorvaldsen’s quote by Thorvaldsen himself serves to choice of subject, but from his drawings we illustrate his use of live models, this time in know of a different descent. connection with another mythological theme: A sketch to a relief of the scene (Fig. 9), dated The Three Graces: 1802-03, where Paris presents Venus with her prize reveals Thorvaldsen’s two models: a print I have, also, always found a great by Raphael, of which Thorvaldsen owned a lack (in female models), so that copy43 and a design by the English sculptor for example for my Graces I had John Flaxman.44 The relief was never realized, to have many different models; but Thorvaldsen worked on the group with when the shoulders were beautiful Venus and Cupid in many drawings from in one, then the legs would have a then onward. These sketches reveal some flaw or vice versa.47 particular traits in Thorvaldsen’s working process: the casual use and reuse of the same In his modelling of the Graces, Thorvaldsen sheet for many different sketches, as well as thoroughly isolate each body part, thereby a tendency for repetition. If we isolate two repeating an academic technique and a of these sheets, one dated by Thorvaldsen’s prerequisite for the execution of the Zeuxian Museum to 1804-05 (Fig. 10) and one to method of creative assemblage. This bodily 1813-16 (Fig. 11), we get eight versions of fine-tuning, which clearly occupied the the goddess that are strikingly similar, though artist, appears to be employed at a stage there are several more.45 Small corrections in the process when the sculptor was are made and tested, mostly in regards to the working in three dimensions instead of two. head of the goddess and the size and position Thorvaldsen’s drawings of the Three Graces of Cupid. One drawing takes us closer to the reveal no connection to a visible reality, but sculpture that eventually became one of his only an artistic one: Canova’s sculpture from most popular works (Fig. 12). In this general 1817. Most often they represent, like the description of line and contour the boy-god is drawings of Venus, the artist’s reflections on replaced by the cloth that Thorvaldsen made different positions and movements. There Venus reach for in his final sculpture. He are in fact no preserved drawings to indicate thus selects the attribute from The Capitoline that Thorvaldsen, like his rival Canova or his Venus and Canova’s Venus Italica. In the sheet’s renaissance predecessors, used drawings to upper sketch, the sway in the female body study the details of the nude body as a part is accentuated and the different directions of his artistic practices. However, from his of the sculpture demonstrated. It illustrates accounting books it is evident that the use of well Thorvaldsen’s use of sketching in his models was common in his studio.48 artistic process as the place where the overall A few drawings in Thorvaldsen’s Museum configuration is established. testify to the fact that Thorvaldsen used These drawings do not reveal the 30 models models in his studio. One example is a sheet that Thorvaldsen, according to Thiele, used with seven sketches of male models in to shape his Venus.46 Thiele’s description even different more or less expressive positions gives us the impression that the sculpture took (Fig. 13). It would, however, be difficult to try
42 Zahle 2012, 21. 47 Zahle 2012, 130. Zahle’s bracket. My translation of: 43 Kronberg Frederiksen 2015. “Jeg har desuden altid fundet store mangler (ved 44 As mentioned in Thorvaldsens Museum’s online ca- kvindelige modeller), saa jeg f. Ex. til mine Grat- talogue, inventory no. C61. It has to do with a design ier haver maattet have mange forskiellige Model- by Flaxman, engraved by Tommaso Piroli. A photo ler; naar Skuldrene vare smukke hos Én, saa havde can be seen here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/ gierne Benene en Fejl eller omvendt.”. wiki/File:John_Flaxman_-_The_Judgment_of_Pa- 48 See the article about Thorvaldsen’s live models in ris,_from_the_Iliad.jpg, last visited May 31st 2017 The Online Thorvaldsen Archive: http://arkivet. 45 Reproduced in Kronberg Frederiksen 2015. thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/artikler/levende-model. 46 Thiele 1831, I, 65 and 163, n120. Visited August 24th, 2016. Bertel Thorvaldsen and Zeuxis 113
Fig. 9. B. Thorvaldsen: Paris and the three Godesses, 1802- Fig. 10. B. Thorvaldsen: Paris and the three Godesses. Venus 1803, pencil, pen and ink on paper, 151 x 235 mm, inv. and Cupid, 1804-1805, pencil on paper. Inscriptions in no.: C61, Thorvaldsens Museum (photo: Thorvaldsens pen. 324 x 250 mm, inv. no.: C63, Thorvaldsens Mu- Museum). seum (photo: Thorvaldsens Museum).
Fig. 11. B. Thorvaldsen: Venus and Cupid. Cu- pid's Arrows Forged in the Smithy Vulcan, 1813- Fig. 12. B. Thorvaldsen: Venus with the 1816, pencil on paper, 264 x 189 mm, inv. no.: Apple, pencil on paper, 206 x 58 mm, C64r, Thorvaldsens Museum (photo: Thor- inv. no.: C224r, Thorvaldsens Museum valdsens Museum). (photo: Thorvaldsens Museum). 114 Annika Skaarup Larsen and categorize these as nude studies because drastically with the original antique work. The none of them show any detail or reveal any aim was to restore the fragmentary piece to an traits from the model. They are, like most of undamaged whole, an assignment that had the Thorvaldsen’s drawings, studies of positions artists adding new parts of their own design and movements. Interestingly enough, the to the surviving remains. Canova held many model in the top right corner is placed in prejudices against the copy or restoration of a position similar to the one he used in the ancient statues52 and Thorvaldsen himself relief Priam Pleads with Achilles for Hector’s Body explained his troubles with this type of work, (Fig. 3). This sheet has a lot in common with calling it ungrateful as it either disappeared, two popular anecdotes about Thorvaldsen’s if good, or, if bad, made the piece worse.53 creative process, both told by Thiele. They Nevertheless, between 1815 and 1817 he was are the ones recounting the two stories of the commissioned by the Crown Prince Ludwig creation of Mercury about to Kill Argus (1818) of Bavaria to restore a pre-classical group of and Shepherd Boy (1817), where the artist in sculptures that had been recovered from the both cases finds his composition in a model Temple of Aphaia on the island of Aegina. who is unaware of his gaze.49 In these stories An attempt at an arrangement of the group it is the position of the figure, which is copied had been made, and Thorvaldsen’s job was by Thorvaldsen, not anything from the to construct the missing pieces, so that the personal appearance of the model. group would return to its supposed original One more story will serve to illustrate appearance. This required thorough study of Thorvaldsen’s use of models, this time not the remaining parts. What was left was to give in his studio, but in the Roman house of the an idea of the original group as an unbroken German Minister Franz Ludwig Wilhelm von whole. Thorvaldsen modelled the missing Reden. On one occasion he and the German pieces in clay, which were then carved in sculptor Rudolph Schadow modelled in clay marble somewhere else. Though he based his the beautiful girl Vittoria Caldoni, while the solutions on the remains at his disposal, many painters present drew her. The Danish Prince of the additions later proved to be wrong and Christian Frederik (later Christian 8th) was somewhat unfortunate and they have been there and he since wrote in his diary that removed from the group on display today at Thorvaldsen, with his genius, had produced a the Glyptothek of Munich.54 head more ideal than a close resemblance of This restoration method is similar to that the girl.50 The implication is that Thorvaldsen employed by Carstens in Copenhagen, though was not completely true to his model, but for Carstens the aim was always to conceive rather reworked her face to fit his own of new and original designs, never to rebuild ideal. When relating this to the remark by an existing one, however ideal and admired. Thorvaldsen quoted above and the many But the idea that working with the revered art models he used for his Venus, you might of the ancients in fragmentary form could act conclude more generally that the sculptor had as a catalyst for new original art also proved to trouble finding real life models that matched be true for Thorvaldsen. Two female figures his ambitious classicist ideals. from the group from Aegina clearly influenced the modelling of the sculpture Goddess of Hope (Fig. 14 and 15) from 1817, which mirrors Working with fragments the static composition and highly stylized During his time in Rome Thorvaldsen was expression of the archaic original. Though commissioned to restore rediscovered ancient the statue readily reveals the use of artistic work. This represents another aspect of models, Thorvaldsen’s use of a pre-classical Thorvaldsen’s artistic endeavours, one that language appears highly innovative for an was also greatly discussed in the contemporary artist otherwise working in the naturalistic art world.51 In the 19th century, restoring language of the high-classical period and in ancient work often meant interfering quite an age that held exactly this language as its
49 Thiele 1832, II, 29 and 36. August 29th, 2016. 50 From Prince Christian Frederik (later Christian VI- 51 See a discussion of this in Melander 1992. II)’s journal 26.08.1821. Reproduced in The Thor- 52 Johns 2003, 128. valdsen Museum Archives: http://arkivet.thor- 53 Thiele 1851, II, 293. valdsensmuseum.dk/documents/ea8987. Visited 54 About the commission, Melander 1992, 27-30. Bertel Thorvaldsen and Zeuxis 115
Fig. 13 B. Thorvaldsen: Male Models, pen and ink on light greenish paper, 216 x 188 mm, inv. no.: C205r, Thorvald- sens Museum (photo: Thorvaldsens Museum)
Fig. 14. Kore from Acroterion, 500 BC-480 BC, from Fig. 15. B. Thorvaldsen: Goddess of Hope, 1859, executed antique Greek sculpture, plaster. 90,5 cm, inv. no.: L7, by H.W. Bissen after the original plaster model 1817, Thorvaldsens Museum (photo: Thorvaldsens Mu- inv.no. A47, Thorvaldsens Museum (photo: Thorvald- seum). sens Museum). 116 Annika Skaarup Larsen highest ideal. This process thus illustrates in where the figure is described in shapes and very practical terms how fragments could movements, but without any indication of stimulate new ideas. detail, could be an example of this. At the Thorvaldsen had a large collection of same time, the medium of drawing was no plaster cast, and this collection included many doubt used by Thorvaldsen as a tool for fragments of heads, arms, legs and torsos. Jan copying, for gathering new visual models, and Zahle has described how Thorvaldsen used for stimulating new ideas. The same drawing his collection of casts as an arsenal of details of Venus can be traced back to a relief he could chose from and add to compositions Thorvaldsen was planning in 1805, one that that were his own. He compares this to the was clearly inspired by a design by Rafael and artist’s use of live models, as described above, one by Flaxman, which Thorvaldsen probably where he would choose one detail from the copied during his first years in Rome. Similarly, first model, and another detail from the next in the sketches of Theseus and the centaur one.55 In this way the fragmented or dislocated different elements from two artistic models models could be said to play a part in both the are reintegrated into a new composition. conceptualization and the perfection of the Though his drawings might portray an artist work. To this list of inspirations you might working towards a compositional unity, this add the designs of Carstens and Flaxman unity was very often composed from many studied by Thorvaldsen in his first years in isolated models, formulas and fragments. Rome. Their works represent a tendency in neoclassical art around the turn of the Conclusion: Thorvaldsen and his models century, where the motif is stripped of any When Thorvaldsen returned to Denmark inessentials and reduced to pure design. These in 1838, the artistic ideals had in many ways contour drawings were viewed as expressions changed. The Danish painters were moving of a firm and unchanging ideal form, not outside into nature in their quest for original open-ended fragments in need of restoration subjects to depict, or they were starting to or reintegration. Yet one could still speculate portray the everyday life around them. Two how these minimalist line drawings, devoid of reliefs showing the daily activities of the colour and the illusion of three dimensions, Stampe Family, with whom Thorvaldsen might have sparked a desire for completion.56 often stayed during his last years in Denmark, Thorvaldsen would also know the style of the demonstrate that this tendency was not colourless designs from the prints he would completely absent from the sculptor’s world.59 have copied during his academy training But, or course, this is the exception. The where they were meant to be integrated into subjects depicted by Thorvaldsen were ancient the process of composing. Greek gods and heroes, and his models the Describing Thorvaldsen as an artist beautiful men and women he studied in his working with fragments goes against the studio, the revered art of Antiquity, or art general perception of his marble sculptures as works by contemporary artists. As some of complete, uniform entities. Julius Lange has the retold anecdotes illustrate, Thorvaldsen said of Thorvaldsen’s work that if at some did not easily find live models that matched point his sculptures were found in bits and his standards, and would have to search pieces, none of their supreme value would be through many models – taking a shoulder comprehensible from these. He thus argues from one, and a foot from the next – to create that it is from the wholeness and harmony his ideal god or goddess. Another time, a that the works should be judged, whereas the correction of the model in front of him was individual parts and details are subordinate necessary to bring her representation closer to the whole.57 This places an important to his own concept of ideal beauty. Through part of the artistic process in his sketching these examples Thorvaldsen emerges as a as they are, following Lange’s definition, 19th century Zeuxis, extracting perfect beauty about “wholeness, the whole composition from imperfect nature. or the whole figure.”58 The sketch of a At the European Art Academies the swaying Venus holding a cloth (Fig. 12), Zeuxian method also took another form.
55 Zahle 2012, 142. 58 Ibid. “Alt gaar lige ud paa Helheden, den hele Kom- 56 See note 3. position eller den hele Figur.” 57 Lange 1886, 216. 59 Thorvaldsens Museum, inv. nr. A637 og A636. Bertel Thorvaldsen and Zeuxis 117
Thorvaldsen was introduced to – if not the Though Thorvaldsen’s classicist ideal was legend, then its practical implications – at the one of completeness and unity, his drawings Copenhagen Art Academy, where the medium show that this ideal continued to be produced of drawing was used as a tool for copying the through a process of assemblage. This source ancients, and for the close study of ideal form also reveals that his creative process included and the human body. Through the legend on several occasions some form of copying of Zeuxis, this dissection of art works and as a tool for inventing new compositions. His bodies was elevated to a conscious strategy Jason originated from a design by Carstens and of separation, selection and assemblage. Due the famous Apollo Belvedere; his idea for Theseus to their imperfect or fragmentary nature, battling a Centaur/the Minotaur from a work these academic models lent themselves easily by Canova and a known antique emblem; to a process of completion, thus becoming and his Venus from designs by Raphael and instruments for the invention of new original Flaxman, possible the esteemed antique types art as well as for achieving ideal form. The he had as reproductions in his collection, contour drawings of canonical works in the and of course 30 live models. Though these Academy’s drawings books, the colourless many visual sources challenge a present day designs by esteemed artists, the dislocated notion of creativity and artistic originality, body parts or fragmented ancient sculpture in the reception of Jason demonstrates that plaster, and the less than perfect male bodies for the contemporary audience the correct in need of idealization, all these models would imitation of revered models was expected have spiked a desire for completion. The and appreciated. Within this 19th century sketch for the relief Peter and John Healing a Lame framework, Thorvaldsen emerges not as a Man testifies that Thorvaldsen too employed copycat, but as an artist skilled at the process these methods. Two designs by Raphael lay of creative assemblage elevated by the legend at the foundation of this composition, as of Zeuxis to an intellectual and inspired well as a certain sitting position similar to activity. In this process his drawings served an one often drawn by Abildgaard, and one that important medium of both appropriation and Thorvaldsen himself would use and reuse as artistic innovation. a “plastic formula”. The lame man echoes the fragmentary look, which often characterized Abildgaard’s drawn figures, making the body appear as if the different elements had not yet been fully integrated into the overall whole. But Annika Skaarup Larsen this irregularity did not match Thorvaldsen’s MA History of Art artistic view and was erased in the final relief. [email protected] 118 Annika Skaarup Larsen
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