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170
COPENHAGEN.
Chap. XI.
in fresh beauties. The bas-reliefs are exquisite, all gems
of loveliness : of his statues I infinitely prefer his males
to those of the female sex. Thorvaldsen was no admirer
of the Rubens school of beauty, and perhaps his fault lay
on the other side; his young girls are emblems of purity
and innocence, somewhat too thin and unrounded even
for youth. His Psyches and his Hebes are charmingly
designed, but his full-grown women are mostly failures.
We now enter cabinet the first, where, along with the
Ganymede, too chétif, if I may use a French expression,
stands encrusted in the walls the pretty bas-relief which
forms the well-known frontispiece of each Danish
almanac, “The Genius of the New Year.” From his
arm hangs a garland of spring flowers, in one hand
a sickle, in the other some wheatears and a bunch
of grapes; while his skated feet glide over the sign
of Capricorn in the Zodiac which surrounds him.
“ The Ages of Love ” would reconcile the most
determined old bachelor to the existence of infantine beauty
and squalling babies. Psyche, seated near a wicker
basket of Loves, distributes them to mortals of all ages:
the Loves peep out and struggle between the wicker bars;
a small child, curious, of course, wants to know what
he is too young to understand; he would like to play
with them—he lifts the covered cloth and peeps in. His
sister, older still, from an undefined sensation, bends
forward to the embrace of a small Cupid who tries to
reach her. From that age all marches en regie—
Adolescence and Manhood; Middle Age holds a Love
indolently by his wings,—she no longer cares about it;
Old Age (he ought to be ashamed of himself) stretches
out his arms, but Love laughs at him and flies away,
refusing to be caught by decrepitude. A copy of this
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