Royal Copenhagen Bisque Figurine of Apostle James the Greater by Bertel Thorvaldsen

Since the first half of the 19th century, Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) has been considered one of the most important and influential sculptors of his time. Thorvaldsen was born in 1770 in Copenhagen and was admitted to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts at the age of eleven. His talent earned him the fine gold medal from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and its travel scholarship that took him to Rome in 1797. The day Thorvaldsen arrived there, the absolute cultural center of classical art and its formation at the time, he called his spiritual birthday. In the Eternal City, Thorvaldsen came to live and work for most of his life, until 1838. Thorvaldsen worked as a sculptor in the neoclassical style and had a large studio in the city. In a style based on harmony, balance and exalted human ideals, often mirrored in ancient mythology, he created a series of masterpieces; statues, reliefs, portraits and monuments. In Rome he called himself Alberto, which is why the initials AT (Alberto Thorvaldsen) appear on some of his sculptures. This name became widely known, and over time he received commissions from royal commissions and princely houses in Europe. Thorvaldsen was the main competitor for the honor of Antonio Canova (1757-1822) and then, after the death of the Venetian master, as the most important sculptor in Europe, mentor to a large number of young highly talented artists. Thorvaldsen and Canova transformed the very idea of sculpture and its techniques to create works of art that inspired their contemporaries and generations of their followers.