The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1885-11-13

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 q 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 tina. the separate rooms shall
each be agreeable little galleries o.
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 occurrences by
Thorwaldsen to the myth of Amor and
Psyche, and the loveliest of his work
was the marble group OF Amor and
Psyche reunited in Heaven. There is
series of bass-rcliefs entitled ".Amor's
Dominion over the World" and one is
tempted to take it as expressing most
completely the sculptor's conception of
life. He was q nan born with love
of sensuous beauty who came late to q
knowledge of the Greek form, and
seized upon it, and all the myths which
it represented. as sufficient and sat sly
ing. Afe- that e desired chiefly to
reproduce the Greek idea as il swayed
his own life. There IS thus little
thought in his work. little attempt at
losing himself in great ldea, little inn
agination. but considerable fancy, and
great fertility in the use OF Greek exam
Piles. These he handled as the material
which was familiar to him, and he
never got far from the use of q few sim
pie forms.
There was one curious invention as
applied to Christian art. aud that was
. whimsical illustration of the story of
Adam and Eve. They are represented
seated together, while Adam holds
Abel on his knee. An altar fire burns
near. Abel has an apple in his up-
lifted hand. and Cain, who is on the
ground, spurns another app.e with his
foot. ut the same time snatching at
Abel's. 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 the
sub ect of Christian art one is apt to
discover how completely Thorwaldsen
was dominated by . Greek and, may
add, pagan sense. He was often
called upon for memorial stones, and
his conception of Death was always
one of fear. Such triumph as he de-
lineated was always that of . sublimat-
ed human passion, as instanced in
Psyche. In the direct subjects of the
Christ and the Apostles the twelve are
merely conventional figures, with
scarcely any individuality springing
from personal or typical traits, and the
christ WAS the elegant work of man
whose thought was controlled BY Greek
lines and inspired . traditional Pro-
testantism. Il. Scudder, -
Hovpcr's Magazine.