LETTER LXXXVII.

THORWALDSEN.

THE rival of Canova is Thorwaldsen, the Dane, an artist, whose genius has already borne him through every obstacle, and far beyond every other competitor, (Canova excepted,) to the head of his art; whose statues must be ranked next to those of Canova, and whose bassi rilievi surpass all that has been given to the world since the brightest era of Grecian art.

His greatest work, the Triumph of Alexander the Great, was ordered by Napoleon, for a frieze to ornament a chamber of the Quirinal Palace, in which the plaister cast is now put up; but before it was sculptured, the career of the emperor was run; and the present government, with crippled resources, and an overpowering priesthood, could not afford to lavish money on a work of taste, so that Thorwaldsen was in despair of ever giving to his masterpiece the durability of marble; when, only a few days ago, the liberality of a private individual, an Italian nobleman, whose name I have yet to learn, gave him the long-wished for order. Nothing can surpass many parts of this frieze. I may instance Alexander in his car of triumph; but, as a whole, it has, perhaps, been drawn into too

great length; there is occasionally a paucity of subject, a want of variety, of action, and of figures of high interest, which give it an air of poverty. A flock of sheep, extended over a space of nine or ten feet, for example, is wearisome alike to the eye and to the mind. Modern artists, indeed, labour under an immeasurable disadvantage, in having all their fine models in art, not in nature. They cannot, like the ancients, imitate the objects, the modes, the costumes, that are forever in their eye, in all their happy accidental combinations; they must turn from life to inanimate marble, and coldly copy from it, in faint transcript, the ancient car, the classic pomp, the laurel crown, the heroic armour, the graceful flowing robes. What sort of figure would our coaches, our coats and neck cloths, our boots and spurs, or our military uniforms with cocked hat and feather, make in sculpture?

The constant exhibitions of the finest youthful forms, in the athletic games, and the liberty of designing their great men in the heroic style (nude,) were amongst the many great advantages the ancients possessed over the moderns. Still, however, the female form, with its variable draperies, is almost as well adapted to statuary as ever; for though Fashion has rendered its habitual attire totally unfit for sculpture, its flowing robes are so much more tractable than male costume, that they may be considered at the disposition of the artist; and accordingly, we find that all the great artists of the present day, have succeeded best in female figures.

The busts of some of my fair countrywomen, with their hair dressed,-according to their own express desire, in the extreme of the present French fashion, sometimes draw a smile, as they catch one's eye in the studios of Roman artists, beside the classic models of a Vestal or an Agrippina. The female busts of certain periods of the empire, however, will, at least, match them in the extravagance and ugliness of their well-wigged head-dresses. Independent of hair, however, the men of our country make far finer busts than the young ladies, whose small delicate features were never meant for marble.

The finest bust I have seen in Rome, is that of Lord Byron, by Thorwaldsen; but neither Thorwaldsen nor Canova, in this branch of art, surpass our own Chantry.

Thorwaldsen's exquisite and poetic rilievo of Night, has rarely been equalled in any age. The Forging of Achilles's Armour, has often been taken by connoisseurs, for one of the finest productions of ancient art, and many of his sepulchral bassi rilievi are pre-eminently beautiful. One, in particular, to the memory of a German, (called, I think, Bateman,) who fell in battle, struck me with peculiar admiration. His family are hanging over him in every attitude of deep and speechless woe; his brother bears in his hand the crown won by his valour; and the Genius of Life, bending over his inanimate form, seems to mourn the extinguished torch, whose brightness he has been compelled to quench.

Of his statues-the Adonis is one of the earliest of his works, and most beautiful. The Mars, though wonderfully fine, is, perhaps, scarcely equal to it. The Shepherd Boy, seated on a rock, is supremely beautiful,-full of grace and expression. But I should never have done, were I to enumerate the one-half of the admirable works, which I have gazed upon a thousand times with unwearied delight, in Thorwaldsen's studio.

He is now employed in modelling a beautiful figure of Hope, the idea of which was, perhaps, suggested by the small mutilated statue among the Egina marbles, though I do not fear contradiction in asserting, that this is infinitely finer; in passing through his mind, he has given the idea a beauty and originality, that stamp it all his own.

She is represented-as in the original-bearing in her hand a budding pomegranate flower; she seems to see in fancy the time when its bloom shall fully expand, and its rich fruit be matured. I marvel that an image so lovely and natural, did not more frequently suggest itself to the poet's fancy. It is to Greece, after all, that we owe every thing of taste and imagination,

I feel, in this imperfect sketch, I have done little justice to the merit of this truly great genius, who has come from the frozen shores of Iceland* to the land of arts, to astonish the natives of her brilliant

* Thorwaldsen, I believe, was born at Copenhagen; his father was an Icelander, who settled there.

clime, with works that might have done honour to her earlier days.

If those works were better known in our own country, they would not need my humble tribute of applause, to speak their excellence, or swell his fame. But that must rapidly increase, and will be immortal. More competent judges may appreciate more highly and more justly his merits; but none can better know and estimate the sensitive modesty and sensibility, the warm generosity, and the rare and estimable virtues of his character.