page_title: Bertel Thorvaldsen
section_title: Works
hierarchical_section_title: Bertel Thorvaldsen / Works
caption_attribution_description: English: Mainz, Germany, Silver Medal 1840, Gutenberg Printing Press 400th Anniversary. Medallion d. = 37 mm. 17.47 g Ag. Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, c. 1400 Mainz, Electorate of Mainz in the Holy Roman Empire - 1468 Mainz, Germany. His introduction of mechanical movable type printing to Europe started the Printing Revolution and is regarded as a milestone of the second millennium, ushering in the modern period of human history. It played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses Around the Gutenberg monument in Mainz by Thorwaldsen: "DISSIMVLARE · VIRVM · HVNC · DISSIMVLARE · DEVM · EST"/ Around Gorgoneion on shield: "ARTE · SVA · LITERAS · AVXIT IN · MEMOR · SECVLAR · TYPOGRPHIAE · MDCCCXL". Slg Walther -; Wurzbach 3457 (Bronze); Forrer IV, p. 253 Medallists: I. (Johann) I. (Jakob) Neuss, 1770 Augsburg - 1848 Augsburg and Bertel Thorvaldsen, 1770 Copenhagen - 1844 Copemhagen Condition: EXTREMELY FINE, old patina.
context_page_description: Bertel Thorvaldsen was a Danish sculptor and medalist of international fame, who spent most of his life in Italy. Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen into a working-class Danish/Icelandic family, and was accepted to the Royal Danish Academy of Art at the age of eleven. Working part-time with his father, who was a wood carver, Thorvaldsen won many honors and medals at the academy. He was awarded a stipend to travel to Rome and continue his education.
  In Rome, Thorvaldsen made a name for himself as a sculptor. Maintaining a large workshop in the city, he worked in a heroic neo-classicist style. His patrons resided all over Europe.
  Upon his return to Denmark in 1838, Thorvaldsen was received as a national hero. The Thorvaldsen Museum was erected to house his works next to Christiansborg Palace. Thorvaldsen is buried within the courtyard of the museum. In his time, he was seen as the successor of master sculptor Antonio Canova. His strict adherence to classical norms has tended to alienate modern audiences.
context_section_description: Thorvaldsen was an outstanding representative of the Neoclassical period in sculpture. In fact, his work was often compared to that of Antonio Canova and he became the foremost artist in the field after Canova's death in 1822. The poses and expressions of his figures are much more stiff and formal than those of Canova's. Thorvaldsen embodied the style of classical Greek art more than the Italian artist, he believed that only through the imitation of classical art pieces could one become a truly great artist.
  Motifs for his works (reliefs, statues, and busts) were drawn mostly from Greek mythology, as well as works of classic art and literature. He created portraits of important personalities, as in his statue of Pope Pius VII. Thorvaldsen's statue of Pope Pius VII is found in the Clementine Chapel in the Vatican, for which he was the only non-Italian artist to ever have been commissioned to produce a piece. Because he was a Protestant and not a Catholic, the church did not allow him to sign his work. This led to the story of Thorvaldsen sculpting his own face on to the shoulders of the Pope, however any comparison between Thorvaldsen's portrait and the sculpture will show that this is just a fanciful story built on some smaller similarities.
  His works can be seen in many European countries, especially in the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, where his tomb is in the inner courtyard.  Thorvaldsen's Lion Monument (1819) is in Lucerne, Switzerland. This monument commemorates the sacrifice of more than six hundred Swiss Guards who died defending the Tuileries during the French Revolution. The monument portrays a dying lion lying across broken symbols of the French monarchy.
  Thorvaldsen produced some striking and affecting statues of historic figures, including two in Warsaw, Poland: an equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski that now stands before the Presidential Palace; and the seated Nicolaus Copernicus, before the Polish Academy of Sciences building—both located on Warsaw's Krakowskie Przedmieście. A replica of the Copernicus statue was cast in bronze and installed in 1973 on Chicago's lakefront along Solidarity Drive in the city's Museum Campus. A statue (Gutenberg Denkmal) of Johannes Gutenberg by Thorvaldsen can be seen in Mainz, Germany.
caption: Thorwaldsen's Gutenberg Denkmal in Mainz on an 1840 medal of the printing press' 400th anniversary.
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