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174
COPENHAGEN.
Chap. XI.
he composed his statue of Mercury. I know no work of
his, or indeed of any sculptor, to be compared to this:
the original is in the possession of Lord Ashburton.
In the adjoining cabinet stands the statue of the
Princess Bariatinsky, ordered by her husband: half
the money was paid to the artist in advance, but
the statue when completed remained in his studio.
The prince died, and when, many years later, it
was claimed by his son, his claim came too late; the
statue had already been removed to Copenhagen, and the
Danish Government refused to cede the original: the
prince was ^therefore compelled to content himself
with a copy executed by Bissen. The attitude of the
princess is dignified and commanding; the drapery, a
masterpiece of art, falls naturally, apparently without
any arrangement. In this work Thorvaldsen excelled
himself. The funeral monument of the youthful
Beth-mann Holwegg is a strange jumble of the sacred and
profane : the dying boy extends to his brother his civic
crown. What is a civic crown in these matter-of-fact
days? is it a sort of German freedom of the city in a
snuff-box, or what ? His genius stands behind him, a
beautiful figure: on one division are his mother and
sister, convulsed with grief; to the right the Goddess
Nemesis, the river Arno, and a lion, to decipher all which
an CEdipus would be required: it is a pity to see so
much good work expended on such an enigma.
Then we have the genius of matrimony, Hymen
and Cupid, in honour of the marriage of his present
Majesty and the Princess Wilhelmina. The rejected
statue of Lord Byron we all know, so long unpacked
in the Custom-house of London, now at last housed
in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. The poet
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