Classical Myth in the Art of Bertel Thorvaldsen. Exhibition at the Hermitage
Join us for online opening of the exhibition “Classical Myth in the Art of Bertel Thorvaldsen. Drawings and Sculptures from the Collections of the Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen, and the Hermitage” on 13 July at 16.00 (Moscow time) / 15.00 (CET).
According to Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage, “the drawings of the remarkable classicist sculptor and famous Dane, Bertel Thorvaldsen, which overcame the boundaries of the pandemic, give us an opportunity to present them elegantly in dialogue with his beautiful reliefs on the peculiar theme of the conquest of the elements by Cupid and remind us of this great sculptor, presented in collection of the Hermitage, looking at us from the ceiling of the Jupiter Hall and gracefully opposing his main rival – Antonio Canova in the Gallery of the Ancient Painting Gallery at the New Hermitage”.
Annette Johansen, Director of the Thorvaldsens Museum, notes that “among the first of Thorvaldsens many clients and patrons were members of the Russian nobility and even Tsar Alexander 1. These commissions were crucial and contributed to his fame and secured his status as one of the leading neo-classical sculptors of his time – and his success is reflected by the number of works in the collections of The State Hermitage Museum”.
Henriette Borg Reinholdt, Director of the Danish Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg, emphasizes that it is a great honour for the Institute to take part in the exhibition dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1740-1844).
The exhibition is presented at the Picket Hall of the Winter Palace from 14 July till 03 October 2021. For the first time in one exhibition space, one can see eight sculptures – six marble reliefs and two marble statues from the Hermitage collection and eighteen drawings from the collection of the Thorvaldsens Museum.
The exposition was prepared by the Department of Western European Fine Arts of the State Hermitage. Exhibition curators: Elena Karcheva, senior researcher in the Department of Western European Fine Arts, Ph.D. in Art history (State Hermitage); Margrethe Floryan, Ph.D. in Art history (Russian XVIII Century Gardens), Senior Curator (The Thorvaldsens Museum).
We are extremely thankful to the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the Augustinus Foundation and the Ny Carlsberg Foundation for financial support of the exhibition.
Photo: The State Hermitage