jan zahle THORVALDSEN THORVALDSEN Collector of Plaster Casts from Antiquity and the Early Modern Period I jan zahle I thorvaldsens museum & aarhus university press 112763_cover_thorvaldsen_I_.indd 1 06/05/2020 09.44 thorvaldsen · Collector of Plaster Casts from Antiquity and the Early Modern Period The Ancients have already employed the majority of the natural postures, and if one will not take refuge in distortions and exaggerations like Bernini . it is quite difficult to invent something new. Thorvaldsen, in Hauch 1871, 238 Presso i Formatori in gesso si rinviene qualsivoglia Statua, Busto, Bassorilievo, Vaso, Candelabro e Ornamento Architettonico formato sul marmo; delle quali cose sono ripiene le Sale delle Accademie, gli Studj degli Artisti, non che ornati ancora i Palazzi e le Case. Keller 1824, 21 Und doch, was für eine Freude bringt es, zu einem Gipsgießer hineinzutreten, wo man die herrlichen Glieder der Statuen einzeln aus der Form hervorgehen sieht und dadurch ganz neue Ansichten der Gestalten gewinnt! Alsdann erblickt man nebeneinander, was sich in Rom zerstreut befindet; welches zur Vergleichung unschätzbar dienlich ist. Goethe, Italienische Reise 25 December 1786 THORVALDSEN Collector of Plaster Casts from Antiquity and the Early Modern Period jan zahle I The Roman Plaster Cast Market, 1750–1840 Technical descriptions by Hans Effenberger The Egyptian casts by Thomas Christiansen thorvaldsens museum & aarhus university press · 2020 Preface and acknowledgements Work on Thorvaldsen’s collection of casts was initiated in 2008 due From the very beginning it has been a great privilege and pleas- to a generous grant from the Velux Foundation. In my application ure to be part of the devoted and friendly team of the Thorvaldsen a separate, minor field of study was also listed: copies of Ancient Museum, until 2016 directed by Stig Miss, who encouraged my Greek stelai in Danish cemeteries from c. 1830 onwards. The research in every way, as did Annette Johansen, Director since pioneer of these copies was the sculptor Hermann Ernst Freund, 2017. The books has benefited from the generous and mutual ex- who worked in Thorvaldsen’s studio in Rome from 1818 to 1827, and change of information with Ernst Jonas Bencard, Karen Benedicte from the following year until his untimely death in 1840 he was a Busk-Jepsen, Nanna Kronberg Frederiksen, Kira Kofoed and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Throughout, (until 2011) Inge Lise Mogensen Bech, of the invaluable project he was a most loyal assistant to Thorvaldsen. The artists’ close The Archives – a documentation centre on Thorvaldsen, in which relationship and their shared fascination with Ancient art, which many documents of great relevance were published for the first influenced their own art, made the studies attractive. time. My sincere thanks go to Kristine Bøggild Johannsen, who The grant covered invaluable periods of study in Athens and until 2019 was curator of Thorvaldsen’s casts, and has been in Rome. It moreover made it possible to bring Hans Effenberger, invaluable with regard to the exhibition, the Danish book and the the cast specialist from Dresden, to Copenhagen to determine development of the present publication. In 2016 Kristine Bülow the techniques used in the production of all the casts. Clausen also contributed to the editing of the book. I am grateful The research took longer than anticipated. The work on the to them all for constant encouragement and many discussions stelai was completed in 2011, and the study of the casts caused the from which I have profited greatly. I direct the same thanks to protraction. The catalogue work soon revealed itself to be a tool Emma Salling of the Danish Royal Academy, who imparted much only for a first investigation of how and, not least, why Thorvald- vital information about the archives of the academy. sen acquired these casts in particular. How did he get them? How many altogether were available for him to select from? How do the Collaborators: ones he decided on relate to his art? Prerequisites for answering these questions were the study of the market and – for comparison Ole Haupt, Copenhagen, photographer – the study of the cast collections of artists in Rome from the same Hans Effenberger, Dresden, author of the technical period, as well as of academies of fine arts in Rome and the rest of descriptions in the catalogue Europe. My first thoughts on these matters were sketched in a pa- Thomas Christiansen, PhD in Egyptology, author of the per given at a conference in Possagno in 2008. In 2012 my research study of the Roman obelisks in Vol. II, Comments 3. profited from the opportunity to arrange a new permanent exhibi- At the Thorvaldsen Museum: Liv Carøe, Julie Lejsgaard tion of Thorvaldsen’s casts at the Thorvaldsen Museum and to Christensen, Jakob Faurvig and Kristina Lindholdt. write an accompanying book in Danish, in which my approach, Ida Hornung diligently curated the ‘apparatus’ of the ideas and results were first formulated. In 2014 the first draft of the illustrations with contributions by Frida Kuhn Nicolaisen. entire manuscript was completed. The study could not have been done without the generous help italy: Karen Ascani, Angela Cipriani, Andrea Felice, and encouragement of many scholars in several countries. Alessandra Gariazzo, Ulf R. Hansson, Rome; Silvio Leydi, Milan; I am especially grateful to the following colleagues who have Maria Luigia Pagliani, Bologna; Angela Paris, Valeria Rotili, encouraged me throughout and generously and most kindly Rome; Siri Sande, Rome/Oslo; Luisa Somaini, Milan; Anna contributed to my work: Villari, Rome. Glenys Davies, Edinburgh; Helen Dorey, London; Klaus latvia: Jaanika Anderson, Tartu. Fittschen, Wolfenbüttel; Moritz Kiderlen, Berlin; Christiane russia: Dr. Sergej Androsov, Dr. Ekaterina Andreyeva, Pinatel, Paris; Almudena Negrete Plano, Madrid/Berlin; Dr. Veronica Bogdan, Dr. Lyudmila Davydova, Dr. Polina Monika Meine-Schawe, Munich; Charlotte Schreiter, Bonn; Popova, St. Petersburg. Claudia Sedlarz, Berlin; Helen Smailes, Edinburgh; spain: Mercedes González de Amezúa, José María Luzón Helen Valentine, London; Francesca Valli, Milan. Nogué, José Luis Sancho Gaspar, Madrid. switzerland: Grégoire Extermann, Geneva, Tomas The following colleagues have kindly helped me during visits Lochman, Basel, Thomas Rosemann, Zürich. to their museums or by furnishing me with valuable information by letter: austria: Alfred Bernhard-Walcher, Georg Plattner, Vienna. I am also very grateful to several archives and libraries denmark: Tobias Fischer Hansen, Rune Frederiksen, Mette for their highly professional support: Moltesen, Marjatta Nielsen, Karen Slej, Jesper Svenningsen, Danish National Art Library, now a part of the Danish Royal Copenhagen; Marianne Stampe Holst, Nysø. Library; Danish National Archives; Danish Royal Library, england: Jon Culverhouse, Stamford; Julia Lenaghan, National Library of Denmark; Library of the Ny Carlsberg Oxford; Peter Malone, Eckart Marchand, Angus Patterson, Glyptotek; Library of Accademia di Danimarca at Rome; John Taylor, Marjorie Trusted, Patricia Usick, London; Library of Istituto Svedese di Studi Classici at Rome; Michael Vickers, Oxford. Library of the British School at Rome. france: Florence Duteuil-Viguer, Hélène Guillaut, Montauban; Caroline Michel d’Annoville, Paris. germany: Bernadette Baronin von Fürstenberg, Nehmten; Not least, of course, the Thorvaldsen Museum and I are most Sylvia Brehme, Berlin; Wolfgang Ehrhardt, Freiburg; Astrid grateful to the foundations that made this publication possible: Fendt, Munich; Wilfred Geominy, Bonn; Daniel Graebler, Fonden for Kontorchef E. Spang-Hanssens legat Göttingen; Christine and Ulrich von Heinz, Tegel; Olaf Herzog, Landsdommer V. Gieses Legat Munich; Christiane Holm, Weimar; Zoi Kotitsa, Würzburg; Lillian og Dan Finks Fond Gerlinde Mühlheim (Kienitz), Neustrelitz; Alfons Neubauer, The New Carlsberg Foundation Munich; Joachim Raeder, Kiel; Jorun Ruppel, Göttingen; Novo Nordisk Foundation Gertrud Platz, Berlin. Overretssagfører L. Zeuthens Mindelegat The Velux Foundations VOLUME I Preface and acknowledgements 5 Contents 8 Thorvaldsen and his collection of plaster casts Chapter 1 Introduction and overview 15 1 The objectives of this book 16 2 Thorvaldsen among artists, scholars, art dealers and art collectors 17 3 How to use this book 24 4 Ludvig Müller’s catalogue design 25 5 Overview of the collection 28 6 Size and content of the collection 40 The Roman plaster cast market c. 1790–1840 Chapter 2 Cast-makers and the collections of artists and academies of fine arts 51 1 The development of the market in the second half of the eighteenth century 54 2 Formatori in Rome in the time of Thorvaldsen, c. 1790–1840 59 3 A selection of forty-one case studies of the plaster cast market in Rome, c. 1790–1840 63 4 The foreign national plaster cast workshops, c. 1790–1850 106 5 The costs of plaster casts 108 6 Thorvaldsen’s cast collection in context: I 112 7 Thorvaldsen and the Roman market for plaster casts 121 Chapter 3 The evidence of technique and bust socles in identifying workshops 123 1 The classification of the mould-made socles for casts of busts from Antiquity 124 2 The original models of portrait busts by Thorvaldsen 127 3 Comparison of the socles of the antique busts with the original models: Workshops and chronology 127 4 The mould-makers 135 5 Notes on the backs of the busts 136 6 Final remarks on the socles 140 Thorvaldsen’s work with plaster casts and their importance for