Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1963, Page 108

HÓLMFRÍÐUR DANIELSON:
Albert Thorvaldsen, Sculptor
“See the hovering ships on the wharves. The Dannébrog waves, the work-
men sit in a circle under the shade, at their jrugal breakfast; but joremost
stands the principal jigure in this picture; it is a boy who cuts with a bold
hand the lifelike jigures in the wooden image jor beakhead oj the vessel.
It is a ship’s guardian spirit, and as the jirst image jrom the hand oj Bertel
Thorvaldsen, it shall wander out into the world. The swelling sea shall
baptize it with its waters and hang its wreath oj wet plants around it;
nor night, nor storm, nor icebergs, nor sunken rocks shall lure it to its
death, jor the angel that guards the boy shall guard, too, the ship upon
which with mallet and chisel, he has set his mark.”
Hans Christian Andersen
On visiting the delightful city of
Cophenhagen, one of the first things
we, as Icelanders, would wish to do
is to explore the Thorvaldsen
Museum, where the works of the
famous sculptor are kept intact,
for all the world to see and to
admire. For not only was he, during
a period of history the most noted
sculptor in the world, but he was
of Icelandic parentage on his father’s
side.
It would naturally be with pride
and humility that we would stand
on that foreign soil and view the
magnificent memorial that had been
raised to honor the memory of an
Icelandic artist. Never has a more
fitting memorial been erected to do
honor to any artist, or any man, for
here it is the works of the artist
himself that speak to us, in all their
sublime simplicity and pure, polish-
ed radiance.
When in 1837, Thorvaldsen had
decided to give to Copenhagen, his
Alberi Thorvaldsen
native city, all of his works of art,
there was at once launched a cam-
paign to raise the funds needed to
build a suitable building to house