The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1884-12-05

The museum is devoted exclusively
to originals or copies of Thorwald.
sens work, and to furniture or works
of art which belonged to the sculptor,
who made the Danish people his
heirs. The first impression which
one gets from walking through the
galleries is Of the astounding produc-
tiveness of the man, but the longer
he looks the more he is likely to find
the marvel comprehensive. Here is,
indeed, great array of statuary,
but the same subject recurs re-
peatedly; the plaster reappears in the
marble, and studies abound which
indicate the variations upon certain
round of themes 1t Is pity that the
collection is not so arranged for the
student that he may see in a group
all the work produced by Thorwald-
sen upon single theme. Instead.
the effort is apparently made to secure
the widest variety of artistic grouping.
so thai the separate rooms shall
each be agreeable little galleries Of
sculpture.
Aside from the portrait busts, the
few illustrations of religious art for
churches. and the occasional memorial
sculpture, the great mass of works con-
sists of illustrations of classic fable, and
here again one discovers further limi-
tation in The constant recurrence by
Thorwaldsen to myth of Amor and
Psyche, and the loveliest of his work
was the marble group of Amor and
Fsyche reunited in Heaven. There is n
series of bass-reliefs entitled Amor S
Dominion over the World" and one is
tempted TO take it as expressing most
completely the sculptor's conception of
| lie. He was n an born with q love
of sensuous beauty who came late to a
| knowledge Of the Greek form, and
seized upon it. and all the myths which
| it represented, as sufficient and sat sly
| ing. Afer that ! e desired chiefly to
| reproduce the Grsek idea as it swayed
| his own life. There Is Thus little
thought in his work. little attempt al
| losing him elf in a great idea, little i'm.
| aeination. but considerable fancy. and
great fertility in the use OF Greek exam.
piles. These he handled as the materia
which was familiar to him, and hi
never got far from the use of a few sim
| pie forms.
| i mere WAS one CuEIouS luNcHtioh az
applied to Christian art, and that wa:
a whimsical illustration OF the story o.
Adam and I've. They are represented
seated together, while Adam hold.
Abel on his knee. An altar fire burns
near. Abel has an apple in his up
lifted hand. and Cain, who is on thu
ground. spurns another app,e with his
foot. at the same time snatching a
Abels. The serpent looks upon the
family group, which appears to have
been Tnorwaldsen's sculpturesque con
ception of an antithesis to the Holy
Family. But in the treatment of thu
sub eet of Christian art one is apt II
discover how completely Thorwaldser
was dominated by u Greek and, l ma.
add, a pagan sense. He was Otter
called upon for memorial stones, ant
his conception of Death was Away
one of fear. Such triumph as he de
lineated was always that Of sublimat
ed human passion, as instanced il
Psyche. In the direct subjects of thu
Christ and the Apostles the twelve ar
merely conventional figures, witt
scarcely any individuality springin!
from personal or typical traits. and th
hrist was the elegant work OF ma
whose thought was controlled by Gree
lines and inspired a traditional Pro
testantism.-Hordce E. Scudder, q
Harper's Magazine.