Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1963, Page 114

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TÍMARIT ÞJÓÐRÆKNISFÉLAGS ÍSLENDINGA
others there are who take every-
thing in big sweeps, literally
absorbing in the mass, and grow
great by dipping their bucket in the
well of knowledge.
The Established Order is ever re-
sentful of the pressing youth, and
many trials awaited this youthful
blonde Viking from the North. But
he worked incessantly , sketched,
read, modelled, studied. To help his
finances he copied pictures for
prosperous dealers, who made it
their business thus to employ
’prentice talent. It was not many
years later that we find him oc-
cupying the studio of Flaxman and
more than able to fill this strong
man’s place. If you examine Flax-
man’s work, and then see Thorvald-
sen’s it is like multiplying by one
hundred, Flaxman’s was delicate
and exquisite, Thorvaldsen’s heroic
and imposing, with its true inspir-
ation from the Greek. If Thorvald-
sen was not an inventive, a creative
genius, he was truly receptive and
responsive and he builded strongly
on the best that had been done. He
was not a fighter or iconoclast, he
kept clear of all factions, made
friends of Protestants and Catholics
alike. Indeed, the Pope is quoted as
saying: “Thorvaldsen is a good
Catholic, only he does not know it”.
But the first years in Rome were
hard, and mostly disappointing, for
various reasons, among them a
prolonged illness, which stole much
time from his cherished three years
and left him with a temporary
inertia. The time was at hand when
he would have to return to Den-
mark, and he had accomplished
nothing! He was almost destitute,
the last remittance from Copen-
hagen being merely enough for his
fare home. He wanted desperately
to make one worth while effort be-
fore leaving and started modelling
his full-size statue of Jason. But to
himself he was a hard taskmaster,
and when the model was finished
he did not like it, and forthwith
destroyed it. This was in the year
1802 and he had been in Rome for
four years. The trip home was
scheduled for the following fall, so
he decided to build a new model of
Jason, a much larger one this time,
— and he finished it shortly after
the new year. It was greatly ad-
mired for its fine workmanship, and
his friend, Madame Brun, provided
money for having it cast in plaster.
Such a masterpiece, men said, had
never been created since the era of
Anient Greece! But, of course, Thor-
valdsen had money to carve the
statue from marble, and now the
time had come to leave, — the actual
day of leavetaking had arrived!
Thorvaldsen stood sad and melan-
choly in his studio, when there
arrived the rich English art lover
and banker, Sir Thomas Hope, to
see Jason. He asked the sculptor
how much it would cost to carve the
statue from marble, and Thorvald-
sen mentioned 6,000 crowns. Hope
thought this was inadequate and
added another 2,000, commissioning
Thorvaldsen to do the work. Thus
was his return to Denmark post-
poned.
With renewed hope he plunged
with vigour into a variety of works,
and commissions began to roll in.