Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1963, Page 117

albert thorvaldsen, sculptor
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humanity struck down but not de-
feated, pleading for our under-
standing and our tears, and we pay
tribute!
When Thorvaldsen arrived in
Copenhagen in 1819 he was natural-
fy asked to do some work for his
native city, statues and friezes to
decorate buildings, particularly the
°nes that had been damaged when
the English fleet attacked Copen-
h^gen in 1807. Among these was the
Church of our Lady, and Thorvald-
sen made all the models for the
reagnificent statuary in that church.
As we walk into this church we
are overcome by the simple majesty
°f the scene: the twelve apostles,
six on each side, seem to lead us
forward to worship at the feet of
the great Christ standing above the
altar with his arms outstretched as
tf saying: “Come unto me all ye
that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest”.
The statue of Christ in tlie Church
°f our Lady is a glorious piece of
religious art and as such has been
admired far and wide. Replicas of
Jt are to be found in many churches,
arn°ng them our own First Lutheran
Church in Winnipeg. It portrays in
simple majesty the love of our
Saviour for all m a n k i n d, the
humility of service, and the stead-
fastness of infinite power.
When all these noble works had
been modelled and were in the
rnaking for the Church of our Lady,
Thorvaldsen wished to make one
sPecial item to present to the church
himself, and this was the christen-
rng font. At first he had visioned an
angel standing, with a beautiful
bowl in the shape of shell in his
arms, but when he knew the front
would be placed in front of the
chancel he realized this would
obstruct the view of the Christ
image, and hit upon the idea of
having a kneeling angel with the
ghell in outstretched arms and
resting on his knees. And thus was
conceived one of the most beautiful
baptismal fonts ever to grace a
house of worship. Nay, to us who
have seen it, it seems indeed the
piost beautiful in the world, and
we can visualize the solemn cere-
mony as it was dedicated. This was
not until many years later, on
Whitsunday, 1839, after Thorvald-
sen had come home to stay. The
plaster casts had been removed
from the Church of our Lady and
in their places stood the gleaming
marble statues. Standing beside the
kneeling angel was Thorvaldsen
himself, holding in his arms the
little daughter of his friend, Freund,
;whom he presented for baptism.
Ranged along each side were the
apostles, and crowning this scene of
majestic beauty was the nine-foot
statue of Christ, gently bidding:
“Suffer little children to come un-
to me”.
About the same time, in the
Cathedral of Reykjavík, was dedi-
cated an other baptismal font, the
gift of Thorvaldsen to Iceland, for
he was always aware of his Ice-
landic ancestry and of the rich
heritage received through his father,
from that country. He had intended
to give this font to the church at
Miklibær, in Skagafjörður where his
grandfather had been Pastor. It was