Copenhagen - Part 2 (8 pictures)

I normally don't go to a lot of museums when I travel, but luckily I decided to go to the Thorvaldsen Museum when I was done visiting the palace, as it's right next door.  Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) was a Danish sculptor who lived in Rome for over 40 years, who gifted his entire art collection to the city of his birth before he died.  This included not just his own artwork, but that of many of his friends and students, as well as a few antiquities he had collected.  When it was opened in 1848, it was the first public art museum in Denmark.

I have to say, I was blown away by how good the sculptures that Thorvaldsen did are.  There are plaster copies of his "drafts" (used to finalize the design of a sculpture before creating it in hard stone) which are usually bright white.  And then there are the actual final sculptures which are usually darker.  The level of detail he put into his work is really incredible and you can't get the full effect via pictures.

However, I hope some of the examples below give you an idea of how good the sculpture is and convince you that if you ever go to Copenhagen, to put a visit to the museum on your list of places to go.

This lion is one example.  I have a full body picture that I will throw on my photo site later.

This is Lord Byron, one of my favorite poets of that age.

I forget who the picture below is, but it's from the section that had Greek and Roman gods and hero's if I remember right. Again, the detail is incredible.

This is "The Triumph of Love".

This is the Roman god Vulcan.

This was a relief sculpture mounted on a wall that he did.  I don't remember there being a description of what is is supposed to represent.  But again, the detail blew me away.  If I remember right, this is only about 12 inches in diameter.

And there is this statue of the Polish general (and nephew of the King), Jozef Poniatowski, who died at the Battle of Leipzig covering the retreat of the French forces.

An lastly there is this stature of Hercules that resides halfway up the stairs to the second level.

This is only a small taste of what is there.  I found it a fascinating museum and must have spent at least a couple hours wandering its two relatively small floors just marveling at the detail.

Have a great day!