THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID "-^^ LONDON: 'ris-, ,33,OLD BOND STREET; CASSELL, FETTER, & GALPfX, LUDGATE HILL; AND .GEN & CO., ROYAL DANISH GALLERIES, 142, NEW BOND STREET, W. 1874. ITIii- Right of Translation is reserved.] / THE ARTS ARTISTIC MANUFACTURES DENMARK. CHARLES BOUTELL, yVi.A. Author of "Christian Monuments in England and Wales;" "Heraldry, Historical and Popular ;" " The Royal Armoury of England" &'c. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. ' Friends to this ground,— And liegemen to the Dane."— HAMLET. LONDON: J. MITCHELL, 33, OLD BOND STREET; CASSELL, PETTER, & GALPIN, LUDGATE HILL; AND A. BORGEN & CO., ROYAL DANISH GALLERIES, 142, NEW BOND STREET, W. 1874. [Thi- Right of Translation is reserved.] Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2008 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/artsartisticmanuOOboutricli TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS, ALEXANDRA, PRINCESS OF WALES, THE GRACIOUS AND GENEROUS PATRONESS OF THE WORKS OF HER DANISH FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN, THIS VOLUME, WITH SINCERE ATTACHMENT AND PROFOUND RESPECT, IS DEDICATED. /34 CONTENTS. List of Illustrations Prsface CHAPTER I. Introductory CHAPTER II. Danish Sculpture and Painting — Notices Descriptive and Critical, of the Works of Sculptors and Painters of the Modern Danish School : with a Special Notice of the Works of Thorvaldsen, as a great Source of Inspiration to the living Artists of Denmark, and an inexhaustible Treasury of Subjects for every variety of Artistic Decoration H CHAPTER III. Danish Jewellery — The Treatment of the Precious Metals by the Goldsmiths of the Denmark of to-day, considered in connection with existing Relics of Ancient Scandi- navian Art, and also with reference to the Tastes and the Requirements of the Time now present 65 CHAPTER IV. Danish Terra Cotta — Its special Qualities, Varieties, Treatment, and Artistic Character b 91 ivi317739 Contents. CHAPTER V. PAOE Danish Porcelain and Biscuit — Their Varieties, and distinctive and characteristic Features ii6 CHAPTER VI. Supplementary — Containing Descriptive and Critical Notices of Paintings of the highest Class, executed in Enamel upon Vases and Plaques of Fayence and Biscuit, exclusively for the Royal Danish Galleries 126 CHAPTER VII. Conclusion 139 Index 145 £ No. 4. — Bas-relief, In the " Triumph of Alexander," by ThorvaJdsen. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ¥ HO. 'AO* 1. Ostrich Feather Badge of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and Armorial Shields of St. George and of the Dannebrog. 2. Ostrich Feather Badge of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. 3. Armorial Shield of T.R.H. the Prince and Princess of Wales. 4. Bas-relief from the " Triumph of Alexander," by Thorvaldsen x 5. Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog i 6. Hebe. Statue by Thorvaldsen 9 7. A Valkjrrie. Statue by Bissen 9 8. Danish Gold Brooch «3 g. Genius and Art. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 14 10. Portrait of Thorvaldsen, after Horace Vernet 21 11. Ganymede and the Eagle. Group by Thorvaldsen 31 12. Cupid and Psyche. Group by Thorvaldsen 33 13. Cupid Triumphant. Statue by Thorvaldsen 33 14. Venus, with Cupid stung by a Bee. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 34 15. Bacchus carried by Mercury to Ino. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 35 16. The Triumph of Alexander. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 37 17. Bathers Surprised. Group by Jerichau 43 18. The Nest of Loves. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 64 19. Vulcan's Forge. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 65 20—23. Plate I. Gold Necklet and Pendants, Gold Brooch with Pendant, and Gold Crosses 71 24—28. Plate H. Gold Bracelets 73 29 — 34. Plate in. Gold Brooches, and Gold Brooches with Pendants 75 35 — 39. Plate IV. Gold Brooches, and Gold Brooch with Pendant 77 40. The Dagmar Cross, showing both its sides 83 xii List of Illustrations. NO. PAGE 41. Priam and Achilles. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 90 42. Hydria, with Flaxman's " Triumph of Neptune " 91 43. Olpe. (Outline) 99 44. Kantharos. (Outline) 99 45. Lekythos. (Outline) 99 46. Krater. (Outline) 99 47. Olpe, in Danish Terra Cotta 100 48. Amphora, Black, with flowers loi 49. Amphora, with Thorvaldsen's " Autumn " 103 50. Lekythos, with Thorvaldsen's " Jason " 104 51. Lepaste, with Thorvaldsen's "Ages of Love " 105 52—60. Plate V. Models in Danish Terra Cotta of ancient Norse Vases 107 61. Venus. Statue by Thorvaldsen 109 62. Hope. Statue by Thorvaldsen 109 63. Psyche. Statue by Thorvaldsen 109 64 — 67. Plate VI. Danish Statuettes of Nisser iii 68. Nisse Academician at work no 69. Terra Cotta Flower Stand, with Statuette of Nisse 113 70. Terra Cotta Water Cooler and Stand, with Thorvaldsen's " Dawn " . . . . . 114 71. Terra Cotta Card Tazza 115 72. The Ages of Love. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen . 116 73. Plaque. Designed, and painted in enamel, by Goutard L^once 126 74. 75. Plaques. Designed, and painted in enamel, by Pierre Mallet 132 76. Plaque. Designed, and painted in enamel, by Goutard Lfionce 133 77, 78. Plaques. With Bacchanalian subjects, painted in enamel after Rubens . . . 135 79. Plaque. Original composition, painted in enamel 137 80. Plaque. With Bacchanalian group, painted in enamel after Rubens 138 PREFACE. HE Works of Art and the Artistic Manufactures of Denmark, of which descriptive and critical sketches are given in this Volume, are fully and faithfully exemplified, under thoroughly practical conditions, in the Institution established in London at No. 142, New Bond Street, and entitled THE ROYAL DANISH Galleries. During the few years which have passed since its establishment, this Institution has both confirmed the favourable impression produced by it in the first instance, and also has gradually secured a firm position in the high estimation of the more intellectual classes of the public in this country. The title " Danish," when found to be strictly just and consistent, would be certain to command friendly predispositions here in England, and, accordingly, the " Royal Danish Galleries " were opened in London having brought their own welcome with them. The new Institution speedily vindicated the justice of such anticipations, by demonstrating the worthiness of the productions of Denmark to be admired and esteemed and valued from their intrinsic merits. From the first, it was the purpose of the proprietors of these Danish Galleries in the English Metropolis, on the one hand, to include in their collections only works of the highest order ; while, on the other hand, they determined to associate the productions of certain classes of Artistic xiv Preface. . Manufactures with objects that claim to be specially distinguished as " Works of Art." At the present time, the Galleries contain works that may be classified in the following groups, every work being produced by Danes, and very many also being strictly Danish, as well in design as in execution. I. Pictures. — These are original works in both oil and water colours, by the most eminent Artists of Denmark, and they are painted expressly for the Danish Galleries in London. As will be seen from the following pages. Marine Subjects, which are specially popular in Denmark, and enjoy a cor- responding popularity among ourselves, take the lead in the department of Danish paintings in oil. II. SCULPTURE. — The works in this group necessarily consist rather of reproductions of the famous statues and bas-reliefs of Thorvaldsen and one or two other renowned Sculptors of Denmark, than of original productions, whether in marble or in any other material. Original works, however, by Danish Sculptors, may always be seen, in the midst of numerous reproductions in the form of Statuettes, Medallions, Plaques, &c., in these Galleries. III. TERRA Cotta. — The various productions in this beautiful group are described so fully in my " Chapter IV.," that it would be superfluous to do more here than merely to allude to them as constituting one group or collection second to none in interest and attractiveness. IV. Porcelain and Biscuit : and V. Goldsmiths' Work. — A group composed of objects modelled after ancient Scandinavian examples, discovered as the results of archaeological researches and investigations in Denmark. It is by numerous and diversified collections of productions in each of these five groups that the " Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark " are exemplified, with characteristic significance, in the Royal Danish Galleries in London. Since the "Introductory Chapter" of this Volume was in type, I have heard more than a few expressions of regret that my notice of Norse mythology, and of the mythic legends of the Scandinavians of the olden time, should have been so brief and concise. I readily admit that I should gladly have considerably extended this section of my work, had I not Preface. xv considered that more than the sh'ghtest of sketches would have been out of place in these pages. I venture to add that, possibly, at no distant time, I may hope to have more to say on the mythology and myths of the north, guided by the master-spirit of Danish legendary lore, Oehlenschlager. Meanwhile, I gladly refer English readers to "A Manual of Scandinavian Mythology," by Grenville Pigott, published in London in the year 1839, by William Pickering: it tells — "A tale well worth to hear, In mystic Runics writ ; " and the tale is well rendered, without the presence of a single " Rune," but with ample stores of the mysterious, in pleasant English, which is made particularly pleasant to readers by Aldine type. The new edition, just published, of the " Manual of Mythologies," Norse Mythology included in the group, I have not yet seen; but the opinion of it already expressed in the Academy is more than sufficient to assure me of its excellence and value. C. B. London, April, 1874. Ckoss op the Order of the Dannebroc. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. " Let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark ! " — Hahlet. " Art never dies ! Her ancient reign, As years roll on, revives again. Like Nature's self, with gentle sway. In far off-ages and to-day. Art lives and rules and aids to bind. In one true brotherhood, mankind." Prologue to Old Plat. T is an essential, and it is also a distinctive, characteristic of the Royal Danish Galleries established in London, that in direct and close association with Works of Art of the highest order in Painting and Sculpture, they contain various classes of objects — all of them of the same high character — in the production of which Art and Manufac- ture act in harmonious alliance. Thus, while the more poetic and imaginative creations of Art maintain the exalted dignity of their proper position and vindicate their intrinsic supremacy, true and truly noble Art at the same time significantly declares the versatility of her powers, and demonstrates the infinite value of her refining influence with whatever works of man's hands may con- tribute as well to the convenience and comfort as to the adornment of human B Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. life. Here, in these Galleries, side by side with Pictures on canvas and Works of Sculpture, are productions of the Goldsmith, the Potter, and the Enameller ; and they all combine both to establish and to illustrate the fact, that all alike, and each in their own degree and under conditions consistent with their own character, are expressions of that one great Principle which we entitle Art. For Art, the faithful and loving Disciple of Nature, is ever ready to follow the example and the guidance of Nature herself, and to sympathise with Nature's own invariable system of action, in bestowing becoming care and regard upon those productions of human workers in which utility has a decided precedence, so that they, as well as the more ambitious of man's works, may be endowed with the perennial delight of consistent beauty. When thus in alliance with Manufacture, Art is no less true to herself than when she rises to her loftiest aspirations ; and, in like manner, then may the highest works of Art the most confidently rely upon just and worthy 'appreciation, when the taste and the judgment are trained and disciplined by the influence of Art, acting through her presence in all the familiar appliances and associations of every-day life. So long, indeed, as a rigid dividing-line is considered to be drawn between Art and Manufacture, so long is grave injustice done to both the one and the other ; while, at the same time, by this very act of restricting the range of Art and humiliating the condition of Manufacture, the faculty of forming a true estimate of Art herself is very seriously affected. Happily, the last few years have witnessed a change, equally wonderful and grati- fying, in the public feeling in respect to the artistic decoration of Manufac- tures, so that already in the production of many classes of manufactured objects. Art is expected to have taken an active part. And this expectation on the part of the public, for whom Manufactures are produced, has necessarily had its true effect upon producers, in leading them to understand that most serious shortcomings must be inseparable from the exercise of even a marvellous manipulative skill and dexterity, unless accompanied by adequate thought and imagination and reasoning. The present greatly improved condition of Manufactures in England in Influences of Archaology. no slight degree owes its existence to that wide-spread delight in Archaeo- logical inquiries and researches, from which it also has received both its happiest and its most powerful impulse. The productions of the workers of past ages, long buried out of sight and absolutely unknown as well as altogether forgotten, but at length brought to light by the zealous and enterpris- ing archaeological spirit of our own times, have done much more than add fresh chapters to History, while also correcting many passages already written in either ignorance or error. Foremost in the ranks of the Chroniclers of the past. Archaeology is the master-teacher for the present. As it enables us to judge rightly of races and generations who flourished before the dawn of written History, and traces out before us with graphic fidelity the rise and the development of early civilization, so Archaeology reveals to us the wonders of both artistic and scientific culture that existed and prevailed in the midst of much that was barbarous and rude : and, thus teaching us that the workers of far distant times, and among their number our own predecessors in the occupancy of these then remote regions of the West and the North, worked as well with head and heart as with hand, the head and heart element in their work having always the precedence, — Archaeology teaches us to follow their example in our own working, if we would have our works attain to excellence equal to theirs. Acting in accordance with the spirit of this teaching, startling as it is in itself, and strange and severe indeed in its rebuke of much in the pretensions of modern advancement, it has become an established and recognised usage faithfully to reproduce ancient and early works for modern requirements, and also to cause strictly modern works in both design and treatment to assimilate themselves to ancient and early models. It is true, that this practical application of the Archaeological spirit at times induces a singular apparent forgetfulness of their own era on the part of living workers, who permit themselves to be so absorbed by their sympathising association with the fine relics of the past, that they seem almost to imagine themselves and their contemporaries to have their existence in certain centuries that came to a close long ago. But these are exceptional cases — cases, Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. however, they are, which carry with them the salutary admonition that, instead of leading by a retrograde action to attempt the revival of a prevalent condi- tion of things that has long passed away, our Archaeology ought to be the agency for imparting to our own times, and for infusing into the conditions of modern life, whatever of wisdom and of refinement we may gather from the wise and the refined of our distant predecessors in the world's history. It may be well, as, in fact, it is proved to be necessary for us to reproduce — that is, to copy — what other men have thought out and wrought ; still, this is not to imply, as decidedly it does not maintain, that we are to be content always to remain reproducers and copyists, and without the faculty of inde- pendent thought and action. Very far from producing any such effect, it is the true function of our Archaeology to impress ourselves with such esteem and admiration for ancient and early workers, a§ must inspire us eventually to secure for our own works — as true Works of Art and Works of our own true Art — intrinsic qualities at least as estimable and admirable in their beauty and their nobleness, as those that adorn and dignify the most perfect of the productions of Antiquity and the Middle Ages known now to be in existence. Not very many years ago, the early history of the civilization of the races who successively took a part in peopling these Islands and the circum- jacent regions of the Continent of Europe might have been written in a single brief chapter ; and even that one chapter must have contained more of conjecture than of well-ascertained fact. Now, thanks to the revelations already achieved by Archaeology, this same history has expanded to goodly proportions ; and it is lucid, comprehensive, and far advanced towards com- pleteness. The ancient inhabitants of the countries along the western and northern sea-board of Europe and of the British Islands — unconsciously to themselves, indeed, but the value of the bequest is enhanced by its very un- consciousness — in the works which they produced for their own use have bequeathed to us a chronicle at once truthful, significant, and suggestive, which we study with ever-increasing delight. In Denmark those unconscious Influences of ArcJiaology. 5 Chroniclers of the past worked, from century to century, with peculiar diligence and resolutely sustained energy ; and their works have come down to us, for the most part preserved (as in countries further to the south and the east) beneath the surface of the earth, in so rich and so varied an abundance, that they enable us to trace back with remarkable distinctness the successive stages in the early history of the races who, gradually blending one with another, may alike claim to be entitled Danes. The rude implements of stone used by them in life, and the still ruder stone cromlechs in which they rested after death, are the only remains of, the aborigines, nomadic tribes of apparently unknown origin, who settled along the coast-line of Den- mark, while yet the country itself for the most part was one vast forest, in which the primaeval vegetation of the alder and the oak had yielded to the luxuriant growth of the beech, to this day in Danish landscape the graceful tree of most frequent occurrence. Those first settlers on Danish soil — the first, certainly, of whose existence and occupancy any traces now are visible — disappeared, and, as it would seem from the abundance of the earliest relics of their successors found in Denmark, disappeared suddenly before the irruption of a new and more powerful race, the GOTHS, who, with a com- parative civilization, brought with them bronze and gold, and both skill and taste in using them. In the early history of Denmark, these Scandinavian Goths stand in a position corresponding with that occupied at the same period by the Celts in England ; and the influence exercised by them over the civilization of the North was no less powerful and important, than were the results effected through Celtic agency upon the civilization of Western Europe. As time advanced, in the seventh century, or perhaps in the sixth, the uses of iron and silver found their way into Denmark ; and, in the ninth century, Christianity upon Danish ground superseded the old Norse Mythology-, when the three principal Scandinavian tribes, Danish Goths, Swedes, and Norwegians, each under its own King, formed three maritime Kingdoms — Sweden, intermediate in position and transitional in character, between the mountain regions of NORWAY and the fertile plains of DENMARK. Mean- Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. while Art, readily acclimatized from the East in Denmark, continually grew stronger and became more thoroughly Danish, as the growth of civilization among the Danes advanced towards maturity. And thus, year by year and century by century, Denmark herself became more and more richly stored with those works of her sons, endowed during the lapse of other centuries with the venerable character of Danish national Antiquities, which the Danes of to-day, encouraged by them in their endeavours to combine the fervour and energy of the past with the skill and ability of the present, rightly prize so highly and love so well. The strong affection felt by the Danes for the antiquities of their native country, in itself so good a sign of their inherent patriotism, is happily sustained in the consistent nationality of thought and feeling which em- phatically expresses itself throughout the entire range of modern Danish Art. The same sentiment also is beautifully exhibited in that intense delight in the works of the greatest of the modern Artists of Denmark, ThoR- VALDSEN, which pervades the entire people — a significant sign of the wide- spread existence among the Danes of the faculty of appreciating the noblest Art, while cherishing with becoming love and honour the memory of their illustrious fellow-countryman. One circumstance of supreme interest, inseparable from the investigation of early Danish History, guided by the relics of early Danish Art and Manufacture, claims a special notice in these pages. This is the fact, that in a signal degree the Antiquities of Denmark and Britain mutually illustrate each other. In both alike may be clearly traced the concurrent develop- ment of primitive civilization, attended with the actual possession of an artistic taste and a manipulative skill that command from ourselves a wondering admiration. Both alike show how a far less immature civilization, extending its influences northward and westward from Byzantium and Rome, acted upon the more remote and simpler civilization of the Goths and Celts, which in its turn and in accordance with its powers may be assumed to have affected the pre-Gothic and pre-Celtic races. And both are agreed in Glance at Scandinavian Mytlwlogy. occasionally suggesting, and at times in distinctly indicating, a direct con- nection between ancient Greco-Phoenician Art in the East, and Art as in the course of time it assimilated with the traditions and the conditions of life in the North and West, and there flourished as Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon. The Antiquities, again, of Denmark and Britain attest the early intercourse between the inhabitants of the two countries — an intercourse that may fairly be considered, at any rate in some degree, to have connected the peaceful negotiations of commerce with predatory enterprises and warlike exploits. In his Preface to the English edidon of his " Primaeval Antiquities of Denmark," the eminent Danish Antiquary, Worsaae, remarks — " In order to determine with any degree of certainty the differences between the antiquities of different people, and particularly in order to determine what remains are not Roman, it will evidently be serviceable to British antiquaries to look to the national antiquities of countries that were never conquered by the Romans, and whose national remains are therefore unmixed. In that respect, the primaeval antiquities of Denmark are peculiarly important. Denmark was peopled at a very early age ; it lay beyond the pale of Roman conquest ; and there the ante-Roman civilization was kept up to a much later period than in the South and West of Europe. The close connection which in the old time existed between Denmark and the Briti.sh Islands renders it natural that British antiquaries should turn with interest to the antiquities of Denmark, and compare them with those of their own country." Equally natural, and equally interesting and satisfactory also, are the corresponding results to Danes of their study of those antiquarian remains which so copiously illustrate the early condition of Art and Manufacture in Britain. It is scarcely necessary to add that the presence now in England of faithful reproductions of early Danish relics, in them- selves beautiful objects and happily consistent with the existing state of taste and feeling, cannot fail to be regarded with cordial gratification both by the Danes and by ourselves. It may be well here, in concluding this brief introductory chapter, in a 8 Aris and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. few words to bring before English readers certain of the more exalted personages, with some of the more popular incidents in ancient Norse Mythology, that in modern Danish Art stand side by side with the more familiar divinities and heroes and legends of the classic Mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome. In no inconsiderable numbers the works assem- bled in the Royal Danish Galleries in London are creations and impersona- tions from Norse Mythology ; and, consequently, upon some familiarity with that Mythology they altogether rely, in order to their being understood and appreciated. It is indeed true, that the mythical systems of the tribes which in early ages occupied the regions of Northern Europe are in essence and substance the same as the system of the Greeks, so well known throughout the educated world from its identification with Greek literature. All these systems, faintly enlightened by illumination reflected from a higher source, have their germ in words or phrases which describe the sights and sounds of the material world, or which symbolize as well the aspirations and imaginings as the actual passions and emotions of mankind. But, in every country, the myths that arose from a common fountain-head such as this, like the various races of men, all of them offshoots from a single common parentage,, became modified by the equally subtle and potent influences of soil and climate. Thus the Mythology of the North of necessity assumed a character of gloomy grandeur. Instinct with a true poetic spirit essentially its own, and yet constantly suggestive of parallel legends in the mythic systems of the South, the Norse Mythology ever harmonizes with the stern physical features of the North and with the bold hardihood of the Northmen. In mystic supremacy, the NORNER, the Fates of Scandinavia, for ever keeping their all-searching watch, sit under the dim shadow of Ygdrasil, the sacred ash-tree that flourishes throughout space. Like the corresponding "Mcerse" and the " Parcse " of the Greeks and Romans, three in number, the dread Sisters of the North, Urd, Werdand, and Skuld, arbitresses of the Past, the Present, and the Future, are endowed with sombre but touching beauty. Glance at Scandinavian Mythology. Subject to their control, though high in rank in the celestial sisterhood, are Idun, the goddess who has charge of the golden apples of perennial youth, the ambrosia of the Scandinavian immortals; and Freia, the Venus of the North, who holds the fatal distaff with which she spins the thread of the married life of the children of men. Odin, the Norse "Alfader," the chief divinity, father of gods and men, as another Zeus upon his Olympus, with No. 6. — Heuk. Statue by Thorvaldsen. No. 7. — A Valkyrie. Statue by Bissen. his consort Frigga — herself another Hera — by his side, is enthroned in Walhalla, the council-chamber of the gods, and their banquet-hall, in which with the souls of the brave who have fallen in battle, the gods continually hold high feasts. From their last battle-field those happy souls are con- ducted by the Valkyrier, the fair and faithful winged "shield-maidens," of whom one — invisible always to her charge till the moment of his fall — C 10 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. watches vigilantly over the earthly career of each warrior of the North, and in the end — then visible to himself, as to all around him — she is for ever- more his cup-bearer and ministering companion in the presence of Odin. By some chance — I know not how it befell — one Valkyrie once was seen by a living man here on earth, as she was in the act of filling for her hero his cup in Walhalla. That man immortalized his vision in marble. A Dane, among his fellow-men that man was known and honoured by his name, BiSSEN ; and it also was known of him that he had been a favourite pupil of Thorvaldsen, a Master in the Sculptor's Art still more famous than himself Bissen's VALKYRIE, whose graceful attitude is expressive both of thoughtful attention and calm repose, is of heroic size ; but she has been modelled, with exact fidelity, to the scale of a small statuette, in which form her tutelary presence is never withdrawn from Bond Street. The sketch that accompanies this record of her existence will best show under what guise Bissen's Valkyrie appeared to him, and, in like manner, the companion sketch will show how classic Hebe, Olympian cup-bearer to the immortals of the South, appeared to Thorvaldsen himself As a beautiful statuette, Hebe has a home beside her northern Scandinavian sister ; and so the two sketches from the two great Danish Sculptors, the Master and the Pupil, here find places side by side. Sometimes the supreme deities of the mysterious triad of the North- men, Odin, Vile, and Ve, are seated apart, absorbed in solemn and lofty meditation. Or, perhaps, below them may appear, standing on Byfrost, the rainbow-bridge that spans the void between Walhalla and the earth, Heindal the Vigilant, Odin's warder, a cock on the crest of his helm, his drawn sword in his hand, and winding on his horn a shrill blast. Or, again, seated on his throne between his two tamed wolves and his two ravens — emblems the latter of the great twin faculties of Reflection and Imagination — Odin himself, grasping his invincible spear, may contemplate the conflict ever- raging between the AsiR and the JETTER, the gods and the giants, the adverse principles of good and evil. In the midst of that fierce melee. Glattce at Scandinavian Mytlwlogy. 1 1 supported by his brethren, Thor — representative of Arcs or Mars — girded with his belt of strength, with Mjolnir his cross-formed hammer, short in the shaft, delivers crushing blows upon the club-brandishing and rock-wielding giants, — as in after years upon the earth more than one " Martel " or " Malleus " has smitten human antagonists. Once more, enthroned like her lord, Frigga, queen of heaven, gazes in speechless grief upon the body of the best beloved of her sons, Baldur the Beautiful — the god of purity and wisdom and the gentler virtues — as he lies dead at her feet, where he fell pierced by an arrow of mistletoe unwittingly shot at him by HUDUR, his blind brother ; or, as some legends tell, Baldur was killed with that mistletoe- shaft by Lore, the melevolent demon, represented as an enormous serpent encircling the earth, who is the father of Hela, queen of Helheim, the region below the earth where dwell apart the spirits of those Scandinavians who had not died in battle. Suddenly, Frigga conceives the idea, if prompt action be taken, that it may be possible to recall her Baldur again to life. On the instant, therefore, she despatches Odin's chief minister, Hermod, upon the good steed Sleipner, to confer with Hela. Awaiting the issue of Hermod's momentous mission, around the prostrate form of their brother, Thor and Ydun, and the poet-god Brage stand mournfully motionless ; in the midst of them, Nanna, Baldur's wife, sinks on her knees and falls dead upon her dead husband. Another Scandinavian myth, to which artists of Scandinavian descent sometimes give life with chisel or pencil, follows the romantic fortunes of a descendant of Odin, SiGURD, who, with the sword forged by Regin from the fragments of Odin's sword Gram (given to him by Hjornis, his mother), slew the terrible Dragon Fafnir. Having slain the dragon, Sigurd, who had power to ride through fire, aroused from her deep sleep the beautiful Brynpiild, and claimed her for his wife. But GlAKi, who desired that she should become the bride of his son GUNNAR, by magic arts succeeded in persuading Brynhild that Sigurd, false to her, was about to marry GUDRUN, Gunnar's sister. So Brynhild, after more than one unsuccessful 12 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. attempt, caused Sigurd to be killed in his sleep ; and then, when the truth burst upon her, all her love for the treacherously slain hero revived, and Brynhild died. Then Gudrun married Atli, Brynhild's brother ; and when, after a while, Atli killed Gunnar and the other brothers of his wife — Medea like, Gudrun killed her children to avenge herself upon Atli, their father, and eventually Atli himself died by her hand. And the story in its main points is told again in the legend of Ragnar Lodbrog, Sigurd's son, who delivers TaORA from a dragon, and wins her, and forsakes her. The admirable Danish Sculptor, BiSSEN, of whom and of whose works I shall have a few words to say in the next chapter, has executed fine statues of Brynhild and Gudrun, and also of Nanna, as he believed her to have appeared in the sad closing scene of her devoted life. It will be sufficient here only to allude to other mythic legends, of which some set forth how the NlFLUNGS dwellers in Niflheim, the home of the cold mists, take away the bright treasures of summer ; while others in shadowy phrases predict a " Twilight of the gods," when the reign of Odin and the Asir, like the sway of the Greek mythic Zeus son of Chronos, would come to an end. There still remain, however, to be noticed certain legends connected with Norse Mythology, that by Danish artists are regarded with especial interest, since they treat of a race in some sense professionally their own predecessors, who flourished throughout the reign of Odin. From these legends we learn how wondrous were the achievements of the dwarfs, Brok and SciNDR and their brethren, the skilled artificers and craftsmen, rivals of Vulcan, who worked in their mountain-caves, forging armour and weapons of celestial temper, and forming exquisite jewels of gold and gems, finer and more histrous than the gold and the gems of the earth, for the gods and the goddesses and the heroes of Wal- halla. Another and a perfectly distinct race of dwarfs are the iVm^v'— those familiar elves of Danish legend, near kinsmen to our own Fairies, the belief in whose existence and operations has lingered among the peasantry of Denmark almost to the present day. Rather roguish sprites than wicked, always bent on mirth and drollery, and rarely mischievous except by acci- Glattce at Scandinavian Mythology. 13 dent, the quaint and grotesque forms assigned by popular fancy to the Nisser are constantly introduced into their works (especially their statuettes in terra cotta), under infinitely varied conditions, by Danish artists. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the Nisser, as now they take shape in terra cotta, are quite at home and very pleasant companions in Bond Street. Acquaintance formed on English ground with these Danish elves possibly may lead to a suspicion in the minds of Englishmen, that the brotherhood of Brok and Scindr, if themselves resting from their toil, have bequeathed the implements of their craft to other goldsmiths, not dwarfs, but, like Hamlet's trusty attendants, " liegemen of the Dane," who flourish under the gracious rule of CHRISTIAN THE Ninth. In Denmark such an opinion certainly obtains ; and with it no less certainly is interwoven the belief, prevalent among all ranks of Danes, that Odin's two Ravens, still endowed with a vigorous vitality, watch with loving assiduity over the Arts and the Artistic Manufactures of their country. In the Fourth and Fifth Chapters of this Volume the Nisser will again appear, and possibly they may be induced there to assume such visible forms as they themselves may suggest to a sympathising engraver of the race of mortal men. No. 8. — Danish Gold Brooch, Designed from an Ancient Korse Jewel. H Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark, No. 9.— Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen, Genius giving its illuminating power to the lamp of Art. CHAPTER II. DANISH SCULPTURE AND PAINTING. Motices Descriptive and Critical of the Works of Sculptors and Painters of the Modern Danish School : with a Special Notice of the Works of Thorvaldsen, as a great source of Inspiration to the living Artists of Denmark, and an inexhaustible Treasury of subjects for every variety of Artistic Decoration. " Where Sculpture with her rainbow sister vies." — Childe Harold. MONG the beneficial influences of a practical character, which, in our own country, resulted from the first and most delightful of the Great Exhibitions, was the establishment in London in the year 1852 of a Gallery for exhibiting the works of living French artists. From the first a complete success, while gradually expanding its range to com- prehend pictures of the Modern Flemish School, with occasional contributions by Russian and other foreign painters, this Exhibition has always maintained THORVALDSEN. 15 both its high character and its eminently deserved popularity. As would naturally be the case, since 1852, London has become more and more familiar with the works of artists of the various Continental Schools, so that now either periodical or permanent Exhibitions of foreign Pictures are regularly estab- lished and regarded with signal favour in the English metropolis. Second to none in intrinsic merit, and possessing peculiar claims for sympathy with Englishmen, the last of these Exhibitions which has found a home and secured a cordial welcome in London consists of Pictures by living Artists of Denmark. And to this Danish Exhibition the presence of visitors is invited throughout the year in its own Gallery in New Bond Street, where fresh works, for the most part of Cabinet size, as they leave the easels of the Painters, are continually introduced. The selection of Cabinet Pictures to form the principal components of these Danish Collections has been de- termined in accordance with the greater facility, with which such works adjust themselves to the general requirements of those English homes where they aspire to find final resting-places, while the demand for Gallery Pictures — also produced in no inconsiderable numbers by Danish Historical Painters — of necessity must be comparatively small. Occasionally, a Danish Gallery Picture finds its way to the Bond Street Collections, bringing with it its own welcome. If the works of modern Danish Painters have thus been but little known in England until within the last few years, the genius of THORVALDSEN many years earlier won for the fame of the Sculpture of Denmark honour- able recognition among Englishmen. It was an Englishman, indeed, Mr, Hope, the London banker, who first declared his admiration for the promising talents of the young and then desponding sculptor in such a practical form, as to change the entire current of Thorvaldsen's life. In 1803, on the very day that he had determined to leave Rome, hopeless of realizing the already half- seen glories which appeared to present themselves before him only that they might vanish from his sight, Mr. Hope (auspicious name) commissioned Thor- valdsen to execute for him in marble his Jason, and so caused that turn in 1 6 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. the tide of his affairs which led him on to fortune. And, in later years, after the Sculptor had established himself in his eminent position, other English- men, foremost amongst wliom were the Dukes of Devonshire, Bedford, and Sutherland, and Lord Lucan, placed in positions of high honour works by the chisel of Thorvaldsen, so that it may truly be said that, in the life- time of the Artist, to the Sculpture of Denmark its becoming rank was duly assigned amongst ourselves here in this country. At the present time, it is especially gratifying to welcome, with the latest additions to the English Literature of Art, M. Eugene Plon's able and judicious treatise on the " Life and Works of Thorvaldsen," beautifully reproduced in our own national garb under the guidance of a talented and accomplished English lady. This work, admirable in every quality and accessory of excellence, cannot fail to be read in England with the warmest interest ; and it may be confidently affirmed that few indeed will be the readers of this Life of Thorvaldsen, who will not anxiously anticipate the appearance of other works by the same attractive author. From the illustrations to this volume (which include two large engravings on steel of rare merit, from the Venus and the Mercury of the great Danish Sculptor), the courteous liberality of the London publishers, the Messrs. Bentley, sanctioned by M. Plon himself, has enriched this volume with no less than nine of the small engravings after various works by Thorvaldsen, all of them exquisite examples of the delicate and effective treatment of sculpture subjects by French engravers on wood. It is scarcely necessary to add, that these charming engravings in considerable numbers adorn M. Plon's work in both the French and the English versions, all of them as truly gems of Art as the specimens I have been permitted to select from the entire series, and to introduce into these pages. Bartholomew, or as he was familiarly called by the Danish diminutive, Bertel (the Italians Italianized "Bertel" into "Alberto") Thorvaldsen, the son of Gottskalk Thorvaldsen and Karen Gronlund, was born at Copenhagen, November 19, 1770. His father was a poor journeyman wood-carver, whose artistic capacity rose no higher than the production of rude figure-heads for THORVALDSEN. 17 merchant-shipping ; his mother was the daughter of Jutlander peasants. Of a gentle and timid disposition, and from his childhood reticent and thoughtful, while still a child Bertel delighted in making efforts to help his father in carving wood ; and thus the innate Artist instinct of the future Sculptor both declared its own natural inclination and received its first unconscious impulse. When twelve years of age, he was sent to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts ; and when sixteen years old (1787), he won his first prize, the small silver medal for diligence and application. The large silver medal for a bas-relief followed in 1789. In 1 79 1 he won the small gold medal ; and the large gold medal, accompanied with a right to travel for three years with an allowance from the Academy, followed in 1793 ; but it was not till 1796 that Thorvaldsen, still a reserved and silent young man and distrusting his own powers, left Copenhagen for Italy ; and he did not reach Rome till the 8th of March in the following year. Then the true life of the man began. "Before Thorvaldsen went to Rome," writes M. Plon, " he had been, first a pupil who studied diligently, then a young man careless and dreamy ; but a complete metamorphosis was about to take place in him, and a new man was about to appear. ' I was born on the 8th of March, 1 797,' he himself said afterwards, ' up to that time I did not exist.' Still the transformation was not sudden ; and it was only after a long period of incubation, so to speak, that he broke out of his first shell. Then the artist, who was never again to be free from the creative fever, cast servile imitation away from him." Before the works of the great masters of antiquity Thorvaldsen used to stand " in a silent ecstacy, comprehending all he ought to learn and all he must forget ;" and he studied the antiques, those powerful Greek compositions, especially of that epoch which Winckelmann assigns to the " High Style," until it might be affirmed that he had learned them by heart. As he said, with simple pathos — "The snow that was in my eyes then was beginning to melt" In the autumn of 1802 he modelled his Jason, — doubtless, little thinking how " golden " the prize would prove that, Argo like, it would be the means of bringing to himself. The cast was successfully completed early in the next year. Of this statue Canova, then in the zenith of his fame, D Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. expressed the unanimous judgment of connoisseurs, when he exclaimed, — " This young Dane has produced a work in a new and grand style." It was this Jason in marble that Mr. Hope commissioned Thorvaldsen to execute for him, generously fixing the sum of 800 sequins as the price of the statue, instead of 600 which the sculptor himself asked. From that time the Artist-life of Thor- valdsen was one long-sustained triumph. In May, 1805, he became a member of the Academy in his natal city, where he replaced Weidenhaupt as professor ; and, shortly after, he was elected an honorary member of the National Academy of Bologna. In 1808, the Academy of St. Luke at Rome elected him " Accademico di Merito ;" upon which, as his diploma work, he executed his famous and often repeated bas-relief entitled " A Genio lumen" represented at the head of this chapter in one of M. Plon's beautiful wood-cuts. In this truly poetic composition, Art pauses before commencing her creative work upon the drawing-tablet she holds before her, until the Genius of Inspiration shall have poured oil into her lamp. From the King of Denmark, Thorvaldsen received the Order of the Dannebrog in 1810 ; in 1815 he was made a member of the Imperial Academy of Vienna; on December 16, 1825, by a large majority, he was elected President of the Academy of St. Luke ; and on the last day of 1836 the members of the same Society declared by acclamation that, in order to render fitting homage to the talent of the illustrious Danish Artist, a gold medal should be struck in his honour. After an absence of twenty-three years, Thorvaldsen paid a visit to his native country in 18 19, and there he experienced a cordial and enthusiastic reception. He left Rome on the 14th of June in that year, and on the 3rd ot October he reached Copenhagen, where he was at once established in the rooms long prepared for him in the Charlottenborg Palace, in which the Academy of the Fine Arts was located. He left Denmark August nth, 1820, and went to Rome by way of Dresden, Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw, and Troppau. While he was at Warsaw, the Emperor Alexander sat to him for his bust — an honour which the Czar had refused to concede to Canova. Thorvaldsen found himself again at Rome on the i6th of December, 1820 ; and, with the THORVALDSEN. 19 exception of visits to Munich and Florence, at Rome he remained until on the 13th of August, 1838, he set forth once more for his native Denmark. By special command of the King of Denmark, the frigate Rota of the Royal Navy was placed at the disposal of the great Sculptor; and, in July, .Captain Dahlerup informed Thorvaldsen that his ship was lying at anchor off Leghorn, ready to take him, with his suite and his statues and other effects on board. The voyage lasted a month, the Rota entering the Sound on the 15th of September at evening ; Thorvaldsen, however, was not able to land until the 1 7th, the frigate meanwhile having been enveloped in a brilliant aurora borealis, in which the national enthusiasm discerned the old Norse divinity Thor " encircling the brow of one of the most illustrious of his children with a radiant aureole." Nor was this all, for as the frigate swept up towards the landing-place, escorted by a joyous flotilla, the heavy fog which had been hanging over the sea cleared away, " a brilliant rainbow parted the mist, and formed a triumphal arch over the Rota — for the second time the northern sky seemed to welcome home its child." So it was that Thorvaldsen landed in Denmark ; and there he found that the bright presage of the aurora and the rainbow was indeed a true reflection of the reception, that awaited him from his Sovereign and from all ranks and classes of his fellow-countrymen. Once more he was established in the apartments, opening upon the Botanic Garden, in the Charlottenborg Palace on the ground floor, which were set apart for the Professor of Sculpture to the Academy. There was his home : there he arranged his marbles and casts, his rich collections of medals, of antique vases, of engraved gems, and precious books. In May, 1841, Thorvaldsen left Copenhagen for the last time, and set out to visit in succession Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Frankfort, Mayence, Stuttgart, Munich, Zurich, Lucerne, Milan, Geneva, Leghorn, and Florence ; and in each city he was welcomed with a magnificent ovation. On the 18th of September he re-entered Rome ; and, taking his final farewell of the eternal city early in the autumn of the following year, he reached Marseilles on the 5th of October ; and from thence he went on direct to Kiel, where he found the 20 Ar(s and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. Frederick VI., a frigate of the Danish Royal Navy, waiting to take him to Copenhagen. Again a splendid welcome greeted the noble old man, then in his seventy-second year, his head white with the honours of age, his mind as vigorous and his genius as fertile as ever. But physical strength, which had endured so much and so long, began . gradually to fail. It was on the 24th of March, 1844, after a sleepless night that Thorvaldsen rose at eight o'clock, took his customary simple breakfast — a small roll and a glass of milk — and went to his work, at which he remained throughout the morning. That work remains to this day unfinished ; it is a Bust of Lut/ier, reverently preserved in the Thorvaldsen Museum under a glass-shade, the mark of the master's hand to be distinctly seen in the lump of clay he placed in front of the bust, sticking at the same time his chisel into it, as he permitted himself to be persuaded to leave his work. To his faithful attendant, Wilkens, Thorvaldsen, early in the day, had admitted that he felt unwell. Several hours later, his friend the Baroness von Stampe visited him, to renew in person an invitation for dinner on that day, from which he had excused himself Thorvaldsen yielded to the entreaties of the Baroness ; made some visits ; went to dine at her house ; talked cheerfully and indeed gaily ; afterwards went to the Theatre Royal alone, his friend Andersen having been unable to accompany him ; he seated himself in his customary stall ; a lady came in just after him, and he rose to make way for her to pass before him ; the lady, turning to thank him, saw him bend down — he was supposed to be fainting ; assistance was instantly tendered ; they carried him in all haste to the Charlottenborg Palace, which adjoins the theatre, and there, tenderly and with loving assiduity, they placed on his own sofa only what was mortal of Thorvaldsen. The great Sculptor had died ! On Saturday, March 30th, 1844, with pageantry truly royal, and with deep mourning in which the entire nation shared, the King in person and the Prince Royal receiving the procession at the entrance to the Frue Kirke, the funeral was solemnized ; and on the 6th September, 1848, the honoured remains were removed to their final resting-place, in the centre of the Museum bearing Thorvaldsen's own illustrious name, there to be permanently surrounded THORVALDSEN. 21 No. la-T HORVALDSEN. After the Portrait painted by Horace Vernet at Rome, in 1835, and now at Copenhagen, in the Thorvaldsen Museum. " C^nius, like Egypt's monarchs, timely wise. Constructs his own memorial ere he dies ; Leaves his best image in his works enshrin'd." And makes a mausoleum of mankind." SirM. a. Shee, P.R.A. 22 Ar/s and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. by that magnificent collection of his works which was his grateful bequest to his country. The Jason, his first great Statue, modelled by Thorvaldsen in 1803, was considered to have ranked the Sculptor with Canova, then at the height of his fame. In the spring of 1805, Thorvaldsen composed his first really important bas-relief, the Abduction of Briseis, which augmented his renown to such a degree that by many connoisseurs he was considered to have surpassed the great Italian in that branch of their common Art. Eventually, the supremacy of Thorvaldsen in bas-relief never was seriously questioned. The Briseis is now one of the treasures of Art at Chatsworth, with the two famous medallions, Night and Morning. Thorvaldsen is said to have con- ceived the idea of the former during a sleepless night, and to have executed the bas-relief in a single day. In this truly inspired composition, the goddess of the darkness, launched with infinite lightness into space, floats calmly, carrying within her encircling arms her two children, Sleep and Death, and an owl follows on the wing. Dawji, the pendant to this charming work, or, as the companion medallion is generally entitled in England, Morning, full of grace as it is, and exquisitely expressive in its significance, in high artistic merit perhaps is scarcely equal to Night ; the two medallions, how- ever, group well together, and both are deservedly held in very high estimation. In Dawn, the fair Eos, flying through the air, scatters roses as she flies ; and, while advancing on her way, she glances back at young Lucifer, who rests on her shoulder, upholding his bright torch. How many times these favourite medallions may have been repeated in marble by the Sculptor himself it would be difficult, if not impossible, to determine ; at the same time, it is no less certain than gratifying that the original marbles, the property of the Duke of Devonshire, are in England. The Night and Dawn promptly acquired wide public favour ; they were executed as cameos on shells, were engraved on gems, were moulded in biscuit and plaster, and, in short, they were reproduced, as they continually have been reproduced, in every form and under the most diversified conditions. In the same year THOR VALDSEN as a Sculptor. ' 23 (1815) that witnessed the production of the Night and Dawn, Thorvaldsen also executed two others of his noblest and most highly estimated bas- reliefs, Achilles and Priam, and Vulcan's Forge; and at that same period also he was working out the ideas which found their expression in his Venus Triumphant. M. Plon's wood-cuts of the two bas-reliefs last-named are among those selected by me, and they appear, the one at the head, and the other at the conclusion, of my Chapter III. Comparisons frequently have been instituted, not only between the works of Thorvaldsen and those of Canova, but also between the statues and the bas-reliefs of Thorvaldsen, with a view to determine in which of these two departments of the Sculptor's Art the powers of the great Danish Master might be said to maintain the higher supremacy. The true and just verdict I believe to be, that in both statue-sculpture and in bas-relief, the greatness of Thorvaldsen must be weighed in an even balance. From what has just been said upon his bas-reliefs when compared with those of Canova, such a verdict as this carries with it the assertion of the complete superiority 01 the Dane over the Roman. I believe in his complete superiority. One certainly among the first sculptors of all times, I consider Thorvaldsen to have been the first sculptor of his own times — superior to Canova of Rome and to Bertolini the Florentine, and with our own Flaxman standing nearest to him, and very near to him. The true greatness of Thorvaldsen is best and most justly estimated through the influence of the antique upon his mind, and the effect that the study of the antique exercised upon his career as an Artist. The grand works of the Greek Sculptors of Antiquity first attracted his regard, and then claimed his allegiance, because in mind and heart he himself unconsciously sympathized with their serene majesty and lofty grandeur. Still, it was an element in his loyalty to his Greek Masters that Thorvaldsen instinctively looked up from their works to Nature — the supreme mistress at whose feet those mighty Greeks had worshipped. It is true that he regarded Nature from the ancient Greek Sculptor's point of view ; and, accordingly, with him it became a primary law of his Art to 24 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. idealize Nature. Winckelmann, in the first instance, had taught him this ; and the Greeks themselves confirmed the teaching of the learned German critic. At the same time, while to his vision as an Artist- Nature suggested the ideal of herself, — so intensely human were his imaginative faculties as a man, that in all the diversified creations of his wonderful genius Thor- valdsen never failed to be truly natural. And even if some of his works are not specially attractive at the first glance, in all his works the attractive principle is certain to exist : and the recognition of its presence will not prove to be either the less cordial or the less enduring, because it may gradually disclose the fulness of its powers. With every touch of Thor- valdsen's hand thought left its impress, to be interpreted aright only by the thoughtful, yet by the thoughtful always capable of right interpretation. Rising above even the most exquisite fascinations of mere prettiness — in the Sculptor's Art twin-sister to affectation, — by elevating grace into dignity Thorvaldsen enhanced its charms. In like manner, his figures, if grandly calm, are not inert or passive ; for such composure as theirs, while by no means incompatible with consistent animation or vivacity, is an attribute of perfectly harmonious movement and just significance of expression. That character of his works to which they are indebted both for the well-deserved spkndour of their reputation and for the happy certainty of its endurance, in no slight degree was determined by the fact that, by descent and parentage, Thorvaldsen himself was neither a Greek nor a Roman, but a Scandinavian. The spirit of the North, softened, indeed, by the fair influences of the South, breathes in his works, and it is the breath of the North still. He might be called " Cavali^re Alberto," and so he might style himself; but, an Italian only superficially, at heart he was Bertel Thorvaldsen. Rome was his school and his studio ; his home was in Denmark, at Copenhagen. The entire power of the great Masters of ancient Greek Art, potent as it was with him, never affected the true individuality of the man himself. From first to last he truly belonged to that great Northern race, somewhat rude, perhaps, when compared with the THORVALDSEN—His Selection of Subjects. 2$ softer children of the South, but manly, simple, and proudly grand, who at all times have delighted in noble things. As one of that race, the pride of Thorvaldsen was. the consistent expression of a proud sense of freedom, independence, and strength — the inheritance of the descendants of the sea- kings of the North. Here, then, was the true secret of the Danish Sculptor's success — he was a Dane. Scandinavian blood flowed in his veins, and his was the old Norse spirit in all its vigour. And the inherent qualities that were his own, he blended with a profoundly loving sympathy with the severest Greek Art Thus, while he idealized his figures after the manner of the Greeks, and according to the aesthetic principles developed by Winckelmann, Thorvaldsen took his models from Nature, and his inspiration he drew from her one only pure and perfect fountain-head. And his work always will hold a high place in the esteem of men, not only because of the grandeur of his outlines and the nobility of his style, but also because — while true to Nature in her loftiest moods — his work is the genuine expression of personal power and original genius. Well, indeed, might he have been honoured in life, as Denmark, to her own great honour, honoured him. Well may his memory be lovingly cherished by his fellow-countrymen. And, in the estimation of his fellow-countrymen, well may his works be held to be — as they so truly are — a noble memorial of national renown ; a great source of inspiration to the living Artists of Denmark, an inexhaustible treasury also of subjects for every variety of artistic decoration. In his favourite selection of subjects — as in his treatment of the subjects that may be said to have thronged his creative imagination — two things are signally remarkable : — the one, that Thorvaldsen should have allowed the Classic mythology of the South, and the history and traditions of ancient Greece, so completely to have absorbed his thoughts, as to have banished from his mind all alliance between his Art and the mythology and history of his native North : and the other, that, without any knowledge whatever of the Greek writers of antiquity in their own language, he should have been enabled to identify himself and his Art with the very spirit of the E 26 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. old Greek myths, and so perfectly and with such exquisitely faithful feeling to have realized each varying phase of ancient classic association. He delighted in treating such subjects of the heroic days of Greece, as he felt it would have been a delight to Greeks of those same days to have treated. And while it had not been conceded to him to read the grand old tales in the very words in which Homer wrote them, in thought he could sympathize with the thoughts of Homer ; and so he worked with true Homeric inspiration. Again, while Thorvaldsen conceived Homeric scenes with such grandeur and correctness, with equal facility and with success no less signal he expressed the graceful fancies of Anacreon and others of the lesser Greek poets. Indeed, transition from the higher and more severe compositions to works of a far lighter order seems to have been pure recreation to a mind that, in its wide comprehension, grasped the entire range of the beautiful, and to a genius that was active and creative even in repose. " It has been given to few Artists," well observes M. Plon, " to unite grace and strength in so high a degree, and to know how best to utilize those qualities in the service of a fertile imagination." But if in his sculptured works Thorvaldsen drew no inspiration from the treasure-house of Scandinavian myth and legend, he left behind him one significant proof that the mythology of the North ever retained its place both in his remembrance and in his affection. On his birthday, in the year 1839, the Sculptor received a letter from the Chapter of the Dannebrog, informing him that the King had conferred on him the Grand Cross of the Order. According to the Statutes, the coat- of-arms of every personage admitted to that rank ought to be placed in the Knight's Hall in the Castle of Frederiksborg, as the insignia of the Knights of the Garter are displayed above their stalls at Windsor, in the Chapel of St. George. Thorvaldsen, who certainly inherited no armorial honours from his father, had never aspired to bearing any arms of his own, nor, indeed, had he any ideas on the subject of heraldry. Still, when the matter was pressed upon him, his thoughts at times were evidently directed to it ; and then he thought and felt as a Dane. For scraps of letters afterwards were THORVALDSEN—T/te Great Number of His Works. 27 found covered with more or less crude sketches bearing upon this heraldic question, in which Thor, armed with his hammer, may be distinguished. However, the subject was left by him to receive from his pupil Bissen, after his own death, such treatment as would Impart to it the necessary definite form ; and thus, its bearings designed by Bissen in accordance with what he believed to be his Master's suggestions, the armorial shield of Thorvaldsen hangs amidst the blazonry of his brethren in the Hall of the Danish Knights, charged with the significantly characteristic figure of the god of the Norse- men, hammer in hand, and with the motto — Liberty and Love of Country. A sketch of Thorvaldsen, slight even as this, would be incomplete without some allusion to the friendship felt by the Sculptor, himself an accomplished musician, for two men, among many others, highly distinguished in other departments of Art — Mendelssohn and Horace Vernet. Reference already has been made to the terms of warm friendship on which, till the last day of his life, Thorvaldsen lived with one of his fellow-countrymen, Hans Christian Andersen, unrivalled in the poetic, subtle, and delicate charms of the delightful and infinitely varied stories which have flowed from his wonderful imagination. It would be, indeed, an unpardorjable omission also, not here to record the cordial meeting which took place in 1831, at Rome, between Thorvaldsen and Sir Walter Scott, when the Dane modelled the bust of his brother-enchanter from another region of the North. Far from being the least remarkable circumstance connected with the works of Thorvaldsen, is their astonishing number. The first thing, indeed, that strikes the visitor to the Thorvaldsen Museum at Copenhagen, is the immense number of the Artist's works. The vast galleries, the long corridors, the numerous halls of this Etruscan palace, are all filled with statues and bas-reliefs ; and the catalogue intended for the guidance of the visitor through this immense Museum, records six hundred and forty-eight items. Very many of the sculptures again and again have been repeated, and even of the most famous works several replicas exist in marble. The Classified List, forming a truly valuable appendix to M. Plon's volume, specifies no less than 28 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. four hundred and eighty-one distinct compositions. They consist of twenty- six groups and statues, and thirty-six bas-reliefs of sacred subjects ; thirt)- eight mausoleums and funeral monuments, many of them of great size and containing various figures, groups, &c. ; forty-two groups and statues, and one hundred and forty-three bas-reliefs of mythological and heroic subjects ; forty allegorical compositions ; nine portrait statues, one hundred and twenty- nine portrait busts, and two portrait medallions ; with nine statues and five bas-reliefs of miscellaneous subjects. With a few exceptions only, the sacred subjects executed by Thorvaldsen were originally modelled at Rome, and they now are assembled in the great Frue Kirke at Copenhagen. These fine works comprise colossal statues of Christ and the Apostles, St. Paul included in their number ; the Baptism of Christ, the Institution of the Lord's Supper, and Christ going tip to Mount Calvary, forming friezes within the Church ; where also are the Angel of the Baptistry, and these two bas-reliefs, the Guardian Angel and Christian Charity. On the exterior of the edifice, the principal entrance is surmounted by another frieze, the subject being the Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem. Still higher, the tympanum is filled with a noble series of figures, executed in terra-cotta, representing the Preaching of John the Baptist. In the centre of this last composition, standing erect upon a rock, clothed in a tunic of camel's hair- cloth and with a mantle of ample size, appears the Baptist himself, his right hand elevated, holding a crossed staff in his left hand, and having by his side a shell with which to take up water for baptizing — Thorvaldsen knew well that to baptize by immersion in the swift deep Jordan was impossible. This grand statue, and the figures grouped with it, recall a passage in the Oxford Prize Poem for the year 1809. Having described the secluded life of the Baptist before he entered upon the duties of his mission, the poet writes : — " Along the silent dews His lonely walk no more the Sage pursues : With gesture wild, rude garb, and speaking eye. An air of strange and dreadful majesty, — THORVALDSFN—His Works in England. 29 See ! forth he comes, his holy ofiBce given, Herald of Christ, high Harbinger of Heaven ! Hark ! how the rocks his warning voice resound, And Jordan's caverns tell the strain around ; While poor and rich, the soldier and the sage, The bloom of youth, and hoary locks of age, In gath'ring crowds Messiah's Name adore, And rush, all trembling, to the sacred shore." In the sculptured composition on the right of St. John, there are, in succession, a young man in earnest attention and deep thought ; an old man, and with him his son ; a mother kneeling with her child ; an Israelite Doctor of the Law ; and a young man, recumbent, but listening from a distance. Corre- sponding with the foregoing figures, on the left of the Forerunner are a youth who awaits baptism ; a Pharisee ; two children ; a mother and child, the mother seated ; and a shepherd, lying down at the extremity of the composition, and having the appearance of only accidentally taking any part in the scene. The original intention to introduce the figure of a soldier was ultimately abandoned. The statues and bas-reliefs in marble by Thorvaldsen in England, which in number are upwards of twenty, include the following : — Of the Jason (represented painted upon a vase in Chapter IV.) and Mr. Hope's judicious munificence in giving the sculptor a commission to execute it for him in marble, I have already made mention (page 17). Writing in the early days of the Danish Sculptor's career, Madame de Stael says, — "his Jason resembles him whom Pindar describes as most beautiful among men ; he holds a lance in his hand, and the repose of strength characterizes the figure of the hero." The Argonaut chief, on his left arm, carries the golden fleece ; and he looks back, as if giving to the vanquished and slain dragon a last disdainful glance. With reference to the Sculptor's placing a helm upon the head of a figure in all other respects nude, I may observe, in addition to other classic authorities for such treatment, that upon a fine antique Greek vase in the Collections of the British Museum, are 30 Arfs and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. painted two athletes in the act of running in the great foot-race ; they both wear helms and carry shields, but, with the exception of these portions of their defensive equipment, they are nude. It is remarkable, that, charged on their shields, these ancient competitors display two figures in all points resembling themselves. The beautiful and delicate Hebe, modelled at Rome in 1816, became one of the chief ornaments of the rich collections of Mr. Alexander Baring, afterwards Lord Ashburton : this statue is engraved in page 9. The same Collection contains the statue of Mercury, executed in 1822, of which M. Plon gives an admirable engraving on steel. Having lulled Argus to sleep by playing on the syrinx, Hermes, who is seated, but in the act of rising, gently removes the instrument from his lips, and watches his adversary while he stealthily draws his sword, pressing down the scabbard under his right foot. Gatiymede and the Eagle, in the collection of the Duke of Sutherland, modelled at Rome in 1817, is sketched in No. 11. The graceful Psyche, a charming companion statue to the Hebe, is represented as if hesitating between fear and curiosity ; the all-important casket not yet opened, her right hand resting upon its lid. It was executed at Rome in 181 1, for Mr. T. Hope's brother (see Chapter IV.). The Angel of Baptism, a draped and winged figure, kneeling and holding a large shell to contain the baptismal water, now in the Frue Kirke at Copenhagen, is a reproduction from the original composition, modelled in 1824, and purchased by Lord Lucan, the attitude of the angel being erect instead of kneeling. The Venus Trittmphant (see Chapter IV.), completed at Rome in 18 16, was bought by Lord Lucan. The goddess, who is nude, contemplates the golden apple, the envied prize of supreme beauty, which she had just received from the Dardan Shepherd-Prince, while with her left hand she gathers up one of her garments, as being ready to resume it. For the greater part of three years the Sculptor studied and worked at this nobly and yet delicately beautiful figure, employing during the course of his work no less than thirty models. This statue, of which M. Plon gives an exquisite engraving of large size on steel, was reproduced many times by the Sculptor. The first replica THORVALDSEN—His Works in England. 31 was executed for the Duchess of Devonshire ; and a second copy from Lord Lucan's original was completed somewhat later for Mr. Labouch^re, then the head of the house of Hope & Co., of Amsterdam, whose son and successor became the English Lord Taunton. M. Plon writes, that M. Thiele has recorded sundry perils to which the three statues of Venus were exposed No. sx. — Ganymede and the Eagle. Group in Marble by Thorvaldsen. before they reached their several destinations in this country ; and yet the goddess proved triitmpliant as well on ship-board and at sea, as in her famous contest with Hera and Pallas Athene. The ship that conveyed Lord Lucan's statue was wrecked off the English coast, and both vessel and statue fairly went down ; but Venus Anadyomene, " daughter of the salt wave " — thanks 32 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of D nark. to the resolute exertions made for her recovery — rose uninjured from her native element. The Duchess of Devonshire's statue, now at Chatsworth, had one arm and both ankles broken ; and, accordingly, the goddess wears a golden bracelet and bangles, which conceal the fractures. The third statue, Lord Taunton's, after arriving safely in port, was in the act of being raised in order to be carried over the ship's side, when the rope broke, and the heavy case fell into the hold — the cargo there, happily, was wheat, and so " Ceres saved Venus." The statue had received no injury, and Venus was indeed Venus Victrix — " the Triumphant." In addition to the Night and Dazun, Briseis, Priam and Achilles also at Woburn, and engraved at the end of Chapter III.; Vulcan's Forge, the property of Lord Taunton, engraved at the commencement of Chapter III. ; Genius and Art, engraved at page 14, which was purchased from the Sculptor by Mr. Hope, — Thorvaldsen has six others of his finest bas-reliefs in England. They are — TJie Four Elements, in Lord Taunton's collection : i. Love, the ruler in heaven, — Cupid carried upwards by an eagle and armed with Jupiter's thunderbolts : 2. Love, the ruler on earth, — Cupid ' armed with the club of Hercules, leading by its mane a lion which licks his feet : 3. Love, the ruler of tlw seas, — borne upon a dolphin, Cupid wields Neptune's trident : and 4. Love, the ruler in t/u shades, — driving Cerberus with his bow, Cupid is carrying ofif the sceptre of Pluto. Cupid and Anacreon, purchased by Mr. Hope, is the fifth in this series of six : and the sixth bas-relief, in Lord Taunton's collection, the Ages of Love, one of the Master's most poetic and admirable productions, is engraved in Chapter V. The well-known com- memorative statue of Lord Byron, now in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, was executed at Rome in 1831. I must be content here to specify a few only of the other works of Thorvaldsen, for more full notices referring to the copious catalogue appended to M. Plon's work. Mars and Cupid, the treatment of the composition suggested by the 14th Ode of Anacreon. Apollo, Bacchus, Adonis, Hercules, Vulcan, Esculapius, Minerva, and Nemesis— \h&%c statues, the first three THOR VALDSEN— Examples of his Bas-Reliefs. 35 Graces present with them, and Apollo. The Procession to Parnassus. Cupid and Psyche (three bas-reliefs, in each of which the prevailing sentiment appears No. 15.— Bacchus carried by Mercury to Ino. Bas-relief by Tfaorvaldsen. under a fresh phase) : also Qipid, in various occupations and with no less varied associations ; not the least effective of this numerous series, sketched in 2,6 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. No. 14, suggested by Anacreon's 40th Ode, exhibits a very youthful Cupid hastening in sad grief to his goddess mother, because, while he was about to gather a rose, " a little winged serpent," by mortals called a bee, which was hidden in the flower, had stung him. Minerva, a medallion. The Muses. The Graces ; this group, twice repeated under varying conditions, is one of the Master's most charming works, and superior to his groups of statues which also embody the three lovely sisters. Hylas and tlie NympJis. Achilles and Thetis. Achilles and Patroclus. Hector, with Paris and Helen — two very fine works. Tlie Parting of Hector and Atidromache, in which the touching incident is rendered with fine Homeric feeling. Mercury carrying tlie infant Bacchus to tJie nymph Iiw, the sister of his mother Semel^ (No. 15). A group of four medallions, typical of the Seasons, and also of the four principal eras in human life : — i. Spring, and Childhood ; 2. Summer, and Youth ; 3. Aiitumn, and Mature Age ; and 4. Winter, and Old Age. From this series of bas- relief medallions, of which it may indeed be said, that, of their order, no finer works are in existence, the figures in the " Autumn " are represented upon a vase in Chapter IV. Equally characteristic and admirable are the figures in each medallion. This selection I conclude with the Entry of Alexander into Babyloft, a grand work of many figures, modelled at Rome in 1812, and twice executed in marble. No. 16 gives a sketch of the central group of this magnificent frieze — the Macedonian Conqueror himself in his triumphal war-chariot, the four horses of true Pan-Athenaic race, driven by "Victory" in person. In classic dignity, and in the animation of their majestic movement, the whole of the figures throughout the composition are fully equal to the central group. In antique gems, the " Triumph of Achilles," a favourite subject with Greek glyptic artists, exhibits the slayer of Hector in his chariot ; and sometimes two " Victories " attend, one of them wingless, to symbolize her perpetual presence with him. Alexander's " Victory " is winged, — but the action of her wings shows that she flies only to accompany her hero. Like his own Alexander, Thorvaldsen appears as the noble Central Figure in the Triumphal Procession of the Artists of his Country. As J s o 6 .« c c ^ o X o ^ 0. ^ d «: 6 ^ tt X u j:: H o T! JZ .S Ed .S u n S 'U ^ u I « 3 1 »d (3 X rt V _c X < o 'u 1 ■s 1 V bl ■3 ** o Z _ •» s -s S E 38 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. he passes on to his rest, in the eloquent words of Dean Milman (from his Prize Poem on the "Apollo Belvidere "), History concludes her Inscription upon the Roll of his Works — " In deathless glory lives the breathing stone." Then from those who closely follow where Thorvaldsen had led the way, there advance loving friends, pupils once, who may worthily receive and wear his honoured mantle. Foremost is BisSEN. Born in Slesvig in 1798, Herman William Bissen, at an early age, showed a decided talent for plastic art and for original design, and in 1809 he became a student at the Academy of Fine Arts at Copenhagen. Even more reserved, timid, and distrustful of his own powers than at about the same age Bertel Thorvaldsen had been, the young Bissen had decided to relinquish his studies in Art, when he was encouraged to persevere by the Prince Royal of Denmark, afterwards Christian VHI. In 1 8 19 he obtained the silver medal for a design from Nature. Then it was, while he hesitated whether to devote himself to Sculpture or to Painting, that the fame of Thorvaldsen finally dispelled his doubts, and fixed and confirmed his decision in favour of sculpture. For a bas-relief, he won the small gold medal in 1821 ; and the large gold medal, with an allowance for three years of travel, followed in 1823. He went through Germany to Italy, his career as a sculptor having already commenced. His visit to Thorvaldsen at Rome finally decided his taste, and thenceforth his views on Art coincided with those of his illustrious fellow-countryman, whose pupil he became. At the same time, Bissen throughout his life retained his enthusiastic love for painting, Raffaelle being the Master whose works he regarded with admiration, amounting to veneration. This was a sentiment in true accord with the gentle, exquisitely refined, and generously frank nature of the Sculptor himself In 1834, Bissen revisited Denmark, when he modelled his charming Valkyrie, already described and figured (p. 9) ; he became a member of the Copenhagen Academy in 1835 ; and in 1840 he succeeded his friend Freund as Professor. His health, always extremely B/SSBN — TAe number and variety of his Works. 39 delicate, caused him to revisit Rome in 1835, and again in 1841. He died at Copenhagen, having attained his 70th year, March lOth, 1868. ' Bissen was twice happily married: his first wife, who died in 1850, was Emilie Hedvige Moller : his second wife, sister of his friend Sonne, the battle-piece painter, survives him. In a codicil to his will, Thorvaldsen desired that his incomplete works might be finished by Bissen, who also should direct the arrangement of his works in the National Museum that should bear his name at Copenhagen. A true son of the North, a Dane every inch of him, — with his profound reverence for the grand sculptures of classic antiquity, Bissen's deepest sympathies and his loftiest aspirations still were essentially Scandinavian. Thorvaldsen took with him to the South his noble Norse nature ; and the fire and the energy and the freedom that were his birth-inheritance, inspired under Italian skies by the severe majesty of the antique, made him the Sculptor of the nineteenth century, who might also have been famous among the contemporaries of Pheidias. Bissen reversed this mental influence. With him, Greek inspiration gave depth of tone and sublimity of expression to feelings and sympathies in harmony, not with what Art was in the Parthenon, but with what Art might have been in Walhalla. It was the North that made Thorvaldsen so great in the South ; and it was the South that led Bissen to his greatness as a Norseman : the former was a Dane of Italy ; the latter, instructed and inspired in Italy, was a Dane of Denmark. And thus Bissen's works, in accord with those of Freund, have accomplished so much at once to elevate Danish Art and to nationalize its character. Like Thorvaldsen, Bissen, also always struggling against delicacy of health, worked with extraordinary energy ; and his productions were no less varied and numerous, than distinguished by the rarest excellence. His sacred subjects include, — T/te sons of Jacob slwwing Joseplts coat to tJuir father ; Tfie Daughter of Jairus ; T/te Adoration of the Magi ; Christ amidst the Doctors ; Christ blessing Children; Christ washing t/te Apostles' feet; T/te Resurrection of Lazartis ; and Moses, a colossal statue. Among his classic 40 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. mythological and historical compositions are, — Orpheus; Ceres; Ceres and Bacchus; Apollo; Minerva; Paris; Narcissus; Psyche (a very charming Psyche); Atalanta; Esculapius ; Nemesis; Fi?«? HH[\ n^-^ TT ^M| '* .rli^pf^ ^H 11 ^K 1 Wy ^^4 R<^ ^K / |B ^^! 1 yf '■ oM »y>^ M ., J No. 19.— Vulcan's Fokge. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen. CHAPTER III. DANISH JEWELLERY. The Treatment of the Precious Metals by the Goldsmiths of the Denmark of to-day, considered in connection with existing Relics of Ancient Scandinavian Art, and also with reference to the Tastes and Requirements of the Time now present. " Gold and Gold, the new and the old." Miss Kilmansego. " Rich and rare were the gems she wore." Metrical Legend, Ancient, Mediaeval & Modern. N one sense, at the present day and with ourselves, iron is a "precious metal," and, perhaps, the most precious of metals. But in a widely different acceptation of the term, iron was held to be endowed with an inherent preciousness in those remote times when, as we learn from the Father of History, under conditions of civilization difficult now to be realized, a costly offering consisting partly of gold and partly of iron was made at a highly venerated shrine ; and Herodotus assures us that K 66 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. the skilfully wrought iron then was held in no less estimation than the massive gold with all its elaborate enrichment. Iron jewellery in ancient times ranked with jewellery of gold ; and the Artists who worked in the one metal, worked in the other, and in bronze also. Hephaestos and Vulcan, we may be sure, were Greek and Roman master metal-workers of the most comprehensive order, as well because they worked with equal success in gold and silver, in bronze and in iron, as because they were both Armourers and Goldsmiths. Thorvaldsen has introduced us to the workshop of Vulcan, where we see that much-enduring personage forging arrows for Cupid. Perhaps they were golden, those sharp-pointed arrow-heads. At any rate, they have a wound-inflicting aspect ; and the arrow-shafts (as Heralds would say) are well "flighted," and evidently intended to fly direct to their mark. Vulcan, we know, made good armour and trenchant weapons, and ancient Artists suggest to us that Minerva helped him. Venus, and the Graces, and certain other ladies of their order, perhaps including Minerva herself, if it were their pleasure, could tell us many a good tale concerning exquisite jewellery of various kinds, all of it also produced by the same cunning hands. Thorvaldsen was on very friendly terms with all those ladies ; but, concerning any communications from them in the matter of jewellery, he has made no sign. In his bas-relief, engraved at the head of this chapter, following the train of thought in Anacreon's forty-fifth Ode, the great Sculptor represents the artificer-god accompanied by a domestic-looking Venus, who is seated before his anvil and occupied in dipping the heads of a little sheaf of new-made arrows into a bowl of honey, previous to a similar operation being performed by Cupid with gall ; Cupid himself, close at hand, holds Mars' lance, and offers to the god of war one of the new arrows ; Mars, who is not in armour, looks at the arrow disdainfully. The forge of Vulcan was a favourite subject with both the ancient and the mediaeval gem-engravers ; but they preferred to represent the god busied with the armour of Achilles or ./Eneas. A remarkable intaglio gem of the cinque-cento period, presented by Archbishop Matthew Parker to Queen Ancient Danish 7ezuellciy. 67 Elizabeth, exhibits Vulcan at work making armour for the Trojan son of Venus, while the goddess herself stands by him holding up in her right hand the bow and arrow she had just taken from Cupid, who is walking off with a lighted torch. This singular present from the Primate to the virgin Queen is supposed to have been an amulet to protect her capricious Grace from — what ? Whether the chiefs who presided over the smiths and craftsmen of the Norsemen left any chronicle of their proceedings, or " kept any accounts " of whatever kind, remains an open question ; it is indisputably certain, how- ever, that, as the best, the most graphic, and the most faithful of chroniclers of themselves, those old metal-workers bequeathed to our own age relics of their handwork in vast numbers, of extreme beauty of design, and admirable for skill in workmanship. Of such relics of ancient jewellery that now are discovered in Denmark, the greater number of the objects are formed of gold, very many others arc of bronze, some of silver, and a few — which have been only partially affected by oxydation — were wrought in iron. There arc conclusive reasons for believing the majority of the early Danish relics in gold and bronze to have been made in Denmark ; and it is highly probable that the examples of early iron jewellery, that have been found on rare occasions in Denmark, were also of local manufacture. The Romans, it will be remembered, possessed a knowledge of iron when they extended their conquests to Gaul and Britain ; and relics of what has been well characterized as the " Iron Period " (in Denmark commencing, apparently, about I5.C. 200), which abound in Sweden and Norway as well as in Britain and Gaul, arc rare in Denmark ; and the Romans never extended their sway to Denmark. Great improvements, themselves of Roman origin or conveyed through the agency of Roman civilization, were doubtless effected in early times in the artistic manufactures of Denmark, through both war and commerce with Britain and also with Gaul ; but the fact still remains that, in the greater number of instances, instead of importing them from either Rome or Greece, the Danes in early times produced their own metallic 68 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. ornaments for themselves. It is true that, in both form and ornamentation, especially in a palpable love for spiral devices, there exists a decided resem- blance between early Danish and the earliest Greek works in metal: still, this is a resemblance which will admit of explanation, without the necessity of assuming the Danish relics in question to have been actually of Greek production. It must be added that, in whatever degree the early Danes may have been indebted to the Romans, and to the Greeks as included with the Romans, for all that an advancing civilization carries with it in its train, they evidently also owed much to that civilization which gradually extended itself from the East (outside Greece and Italy) in a north-westerly direction through Europe, until it reached the Scandinavian and Baltic countries. Still, the fact of the existence of national or native Scandinavian industries remains. They may have been, and they doubtless were, powerfully affected by external influences ; and yet in principle and essence they retained their intrinsic nationality. I feel much pleasure in here referring, upon the very interesting subject of Danish Antiquities, to three papers in the Arcluzological Journal for the year 1866, translated from the Danish of Professor Warsaae, by Mr. C. August Gosch, which papers are richly stored with valuable information and judicious suggestions. I may remark that, in the first line of the second of these papers, the date 200 B. c. is accidentally mis-printed as 200 A. D., involving a difference of not less than four centuries. In these papers the learned author inclines to more intimate relations between the Scandinavian races and the Romans at an early period of the Christian era, than he had previously entertained ; and, inter alia, he supports this view of "an active communication between South Jutland and the Romans them- selves, or nations nearly connected with the Romans, as early as the second or third century of our era," by referring to the " remarkable discoveries " of objects that of late years have been made in " the mosses of Nydam in Sundeved and Thorsbjerg in Angel." These discoveries include very numerous antiquities of bronze (copper and zinc), as well as of gold and silver, of which the costly and splendid objects used for the equipment of distinguished Works of Ancient Greek Goldsmiths. 69 warriors attract special attention, such as helmets of bronze and of silver overlaid with gold ; chain mail with shoulder and chest buckles decorated with gold and silver; remains of sword-hilts, scabbards, belts and shields, similarly ornamented ; beautiful brooches and fragments of gold rings ; also remarkable metal mountings, occasionally decorated with the precious metals, for chariot-harness ; the Nydam deposit also was rich in its " great abundance of elegantly manufactured iron objects," swords, axes, spear-heads, &c. In both deposits there were numerous coins, the latest of the year 218 A. D. " Both mosses contained several decidedly Roman objects, but still more semi-Roman, almost barbarian, which clearly proved themselves to have been manufactured by a people which had been compelled to yield to the over- whelming power of Roman civilization, and, therefore, tried to imitate Roman models, without, however, entirely relinquishing their own taste or their old traditions." Of the revelations that of late years have been made through archaeological research and investigation, none in themselves have been more wonderful and more important, or have thrown a brighter light upon the Science as well as upon the Art and the skill of the various races of antiquity, than the discovery of works of the ancient Goldsmiths, which, in surprising numbers and infinite variety, were so happily buried out of both sight and remembrance through the lapse of many centuries, and as happily have been preserved all the time, to our own age, in the freshness of their original perfection, through the indestructibility of gold. We have been told without hesitation or reserve by the living Goldsmith who stands facile princeps among the brethren of his craft, Signor Castellani of Rome, that our age has witnessed — rising, as if by magic, from Greek cemeteries forgotten long before Rome came into existence — the discovery of ancient objects in gold of a workmanship so perfect, that it not only has been a matter of extreme difficulty to imitate them, but for a considerable time it was not possible even to explain theoretically the processes employed in producing them. At a very remote age, the Greeks acquired by some unknown means a complete knowledge of the art of working 70 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. gold in its highest degree of perfection ; and, when once they had been initiated into the true modes of treating the metal and of subjecting it to the action of their pure taste and lively and imaginative genius, the ancient Artist-goldsmiths of Italy and Greece felt themselves enabled to keep in the front rank, side by side with the greatest masters of High Art who flourished in their day. Those ancient Goldsmiths and Jewellers raised their Art to a lofty perfection, which soars high above the range of succeeding ages. At a later period it could not sustain its exalted rank even on its own ground, and in the palmy days of Imperial Rome it began to decline. " I have not seen," says Castellani, "a single work in gold dating from a well-determined Roman epoch, which can in any degree whatever be compared, for elegance of form or skill of workmanship, with the archaic productions of Greek Art. Without doubt," he adds, "the ■Romans had traditionally preserved certain primitive forms belonging to their models, but to these models the later imitations are, in point of execution, extremely inferior." Thus, the true models of Art in gold for ourselves to study, and to imitate if we can, are strictly archaic, and neither Roman of the most artistic periods of Rome, nor Italian or French Renaissance of any period whatever. Nor are we by any means to permit our thoughtful admiration, and our study for the purpose of imitation and reproduction, to be exclusively absorbed by even the most excellent and admirable relics of primitive Italo- Greek Art. Scandinavian Goldsmiths in Denmark have left rich treasures of ancient relics, their bequests to our extraordinary era of archaeological discovery and revived taste for ancient noble Art. And, if in some qualities of southern delicacy the master-pieces of the ancient craftsmen of the North yield a precedence in the domain of Art to the still more ancient jewellery of Grecia Magna, so excellent and admirable they are in every high quality of the Goldsmith's Art, so specially interesting also to both Englishmen and Danes through local and historical associations, that, at least on terms of full equality with ancient Greek Goldsmiths' work, Scandinavian relics in gold claim to be accepted by us as models for study, for reproduction also and imitation. In a happy applicability indeed to the tastes, the requirements, and the uses of the Plate I.— 71 No. a». No. 21. No. 23. Danish Arch<«ological Gold Jewellery. Reproduced from Ancient Norse Examples in the National Museum at Copenhagen. No. 30, Necklet and Pendants. No. 21, Brooch with Pendants. Nos. 22 & 23, Crosses. K* Plate II. — 73 Ko. 25, No. 26. No. 37. >;u. zs. Danish ARCHiOOLOGiCAL Gold Jewellery, Reproduced from Ancient Norse Examples in the National Museum at Copenhagen. Nos. 24, 23, a6, 27, & 28, Bracelets. Plate III. — 75 No. 33. Ko. 34. Danish ARCHiEOLOoicAL Gold Jewellery, Reproduced from Ancient Xorse Examples in the National Museum at Copenhagen. Nos. 29, 30, 3t, & 32, Brooches. Nos. 33 & 34, Brooches with Pendants. Plate IV.— 77 Xo, 35. No. 39. No. 36. No. 37. No. 38. Danish Arch/Eological Gold Jewellery, Reproduced from Ancient Norse Examples in the National Museum at Copenhagen. Nos. 35, 36, 37, & 18. Brooches. No. 39. Brooch with Pendant. Danish ArcJiceological Gold Jewellery. 79 present day, in both England and Denmark, as models for living Goldsmiths, the old Scandinavian jewellery is second to none. And, expressly regarded with this view, it is signally gratifying to find living Danish Goldsmiths who with such cordial sympathy identify themselves with tlieir predecessors of early centuries, that, in the true feeling of ancient Scandinavian Art in gold, they produce exquisite jewellery which harmonises perfectly with the spirit of their own age, and with all that is summed up in the comprehensive word " fashion " by their own contemporaries. Beautiful in its forms, versatile in its ready and felicitous adaptation to every modern demand, and delicately graceful in its artistic treatment, this jewellery at one and the same time gratifies the prevailing love for what is ancient, and provides all that is rightly required in what is modern : and thus, of this archaeological jewellery of Denmark, produced by the latest generation of Danes, it may justly be said that, so far as pure Goldsmith's work is concerned, it leaves nothing to be desired. This is the jewellery, now made of fine gold from ancient models by the most skilled Danish gold-workers established for that purpose in London, that for itself proclaims its own true character, and vindicates its own reputation in the Royal Danish Galleries in Bond Street; where also on its own behalf it demonstrates the peculiar claims it possesses to be heartily welcomed, and regarded with a wide-spread admiration and esteem in England. In addition to the accompanying four pages of illustrative examples which speak for themselves, a very few words by way of description of the Danish Jewellery in the Bond Street Collections will be sufficient. It must be observed, however, that carefully as they have been drawn, and delicate as has been the execution of the engraving on the wood, these engraved examples do not profess to accomplish much more than to give a .correct general idea of the original objects which they represent. The fine-drawn funiform lines, the airy filagree, the light yet elaborate chasing, the rich traceries, and the subtle m^andres of the gold, admit only of approximate representation by even the most successful efforts of the wood engraver's 8o Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. art. Still, the wood-cuts show, and show worthily, what is the aspect of the Danish Jewellery in gold ; and they describe the various pieces with far more graphic and characteristic effectiveness than any written words. The actual designs, with the details of the treatment, it will be remembered, have been derived from the ancient Norse original works, discovered in Denmark and preserved in the Archzeological Museum at Copenhagen. While influences derived from the East are occasionally to be discerned in them with greater or less distinctness, on the whole, these designs have that decidedly distinctive character of their own, which both stamps them with the impress of a genuine Danish nationality, and also proves the ancient race established permanently in Denmark to have been true Artists as well by birth as through education. In every instance, the designs are strictly in keeping with the nature and the natural qualities of the material to which they were to be applied — thoroughly metallic, that is ; and in this all-important quality, the reproductions of the old designs show that the modern Danish Goldsmiths both appreciate and emulate the example of their ancient predecessors. Of the originals, some are in iron and others in bronze; but so fine and so truly artistic is the treatment of these metals by the old Norsemen, under the inspiration of Brok and Scindre, that in producing in gold the designs of the iron and bronze relics, the only change that had to be made was the substitution of what we now distinguish as a " precious " metal in the stead of a "hard" one. In the iron relics themselves, much of the original enrichment has necessarily been lost, but enough remains to guide with certain fidelity the living Goldsmith in his reproductions. This is most happily exemplified in the reproduction in gold of a very ancient necklet, beautifully executed in iron, in which the Norse iron-worker has been followed with great care and complete success by the Danish Goldsmith. In this remarkable ornament, the original form, design, and treatment have been faithfully copied ; and the ingenious and effective mechanism for fastening the two ends has also been repeated with exact accuracy. It is not possible to pass from this glance at the iron jewellery of the old Norsemen, without Danish Arcliceological Gold Jewellery. 8i at least a warm expression of special admiration for the intelligence, the skill, and the refined taste which enabled them in their comparatively dark days to devise and execute in so intractable a metal, works of such a high order in Art, that in this later era of intellectual enlightenment, we may feel a not unworthy pride in having added a fresh preciousness to fine gold by working it as they worked iron. In our own times, iron jewellery of a really high artistic character can be said to have only an exceptional existence : but the Berlin iron ornaments of the year 1813, when "gold" so freely was "given for iron," may not be forgotten, since they honourably claim to take rank as works of Art, while each beautiful object became a memorial of a cherished and memorable patriotism. Armlets and bracelets, all of them of gold, some being in the form of elastic and self-adjusting coils, and others exhibiting many varieties of inter- lacing and pierced decorative designs, occupy prominent places in the collections in the Royal Danish Galleries. The Morse, or Brooch section, includes upwards of fifty varieties in gold that have been grouped under the common title of " Shield Brooches," from their form and general character having been derived from the most essential and important object in the ancient Scandinavian warrior's defensive equipment, — discs, more or less elaborately enriched with diversified adornment, gems at times representing the rivets of the actual pieces of armour, and, in some examples, the bucklers themselves having miniature weapons as accessories, and so made to assume the condition of trophies. These reproductions of jewels, proved by the numerous original specimens that have been found and preserved to have been held in high favour by the ancient Norsemen, invariably are endowed with a massive richness essentially their own. It is unnecessary to do more than specify the presence with this Danish Jewellery of rings, chains, necklets, lockets, crosses, ear-pendants, pins, studs, buttons, and all the miscellaneous objects produced by Goldsmiths and now in use, — one single object, the " Dagmar Cross," only demanding any detailed description. Thyra and Dagmar — names auspiciously revived in the family of the L 82 Arfs and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. present King of Denmark — were two Royal ladies whose names are among those of which every true Dane is most proud in the history of his country. Thyra was one of the early Queens of Denmark, who is best remembered in its religious annals for her piety and her zeal in the promotion of Chris- tianity in the land of her adoption. A daughter of our Edward the Elder, a sister of Alfred the Great, the Consort of Gorm III. (the great-grandfather of Canute the Great), who died in 931, — Queen Thyra, from her patriotic spirit, received the surname of Da7inebod, or the " consolation of the Danish people." She died in 935, and her sepulchre still exists at Jelling, in Jutland ; it is a vast tumulus, containing a chamber formed of timber, which has been opened more than once, and the relics found in it are preserved in the Royal Museum at Copenhagen. Dagmar, the Queen of Waldemar II., a daughter of Przemisl Ottakar, King of Bohemia, is commemorated in Danish chronicles and ballads as a popular favourite eminently distinguished. Her real name was Margaret. In the Norse, Dagtnar is the " bright day ; " and that name was given by his people to the fair and well-loved Queen of their "victorious" King. The " Chronicon Erici " mentions her as " Margareta regina, quce propter prcecipuam formce pulchritudinem dicta fuit Daghmar ; " and other records tell how she bore that name also to denote the bright beauty of her gentle goodness. Queen Dagmar died in 12 13, and was buried in the church of Ringsted, in Sealand. In the reign of Christian V., who died in 1699, her tomb was opened, when a remarkable cross was found lying upon her breast, which cross now is preserved in the Museum of National Antiquities at Copenhagen. It is of gold, enamelled, having on one side a crucifix, and on the other side portraits of Christ (in the centre), of St. Basil, St. John Chrysostom, St. Mary the Virgin, and St. John the Evangelist. It measures one and a-half inch in length, by one inch in width, and it may confidently be assigned to Byzantine design and workmanship. A faithful copy of this Cross, made expressly for that purpose by the Crown Jeweller at Copenhagen by command of the King, was suspended from the costly necklet which formed the Royal present from her native Denmark to our The Dagmar Cross. — Norwegian Silver Jewellery. 83 Princess of Wales on the marriage of Her Royal Highness. Other copies of the " Dagmar Cross " are always to be seen in Bond Street. And these copies, all of them no less faithful than the copy possessed by the Princess herself, are either enamelled, or the gold is engraved after the designs of the original, but without the enamel ; and in England, the " Dagmar Crosses " share the popularity enjoyed in Denmark by the Queen whose name they bear. Noble and characteristic statues of the two Queens, Thyra and Dagmar, with others equally fine of their heroic and renowned Royal suc- cessors of later times, the Queens Margaret and Philippa, have been executed by Bissen, and are in the palace at Christiansborg. No. 40.— The Dagmar Cross, showing both sides of it. (The same size as the original.) The severance, in 1814, of the Union, that till then, since the days of Lancastrian ascendency in England, had bound together Denmark and Norway as a single kingdom under one and the same Sovereign, left the two countries so cordially united in the friendly bond of their Scandinavian sister- hood, that the national silver jewellery of Norway rightly finds a place beside Danish archaeological Goldsmith's work in the Bond Street Galleries. This gracefully beautiful jewellery, produced by a well-known Norwegian jeweller of Christiania, which is admired and held in high estimation throughout 84 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. the civilized world, consists of suites that correspond with the Solje, the brooch for centuries in universal favour in Norway, and among the peasantry treasured to be transmitted cis an heir-loom through successive' generations. A pet diminutive of the generic Solv, in the Danish and Norwegian signifying "silver," — the Solje, or the " silverlette," is a circular brooch of open filagree work, surrounded with a thickly-set cluster of graceful pendants, which assume the form either of a cross, a drop, or a cup, and are suspended by little links. The Solje suites comprise tiara, necklet, brooch, bracelets, and ear-pendants. In art and manufacture, in strength, and in the weight of the metal used in it also, this silver jewellery of Norway is altogether superior to the common Genoese filagree. Silver buckles of various sizes, some of them very large, are characteristic of Norway, and abound where the Solje have their home in London. The use of ivy leaves as models is specially admirable in some of this silver jewellery from Norway. To the Signori Castellani belongs the honour of having founded the first of the many flourishing schools of archaeological Goldsmiths. The example, so well set by those gentlemen, has been followed in several countries ; but nowhere with greater energy, resolution, and intelligence than in Denmark. Having displayed before them the magnificent relics of the primaeval art of , their country, the accomplished Goldsmiths of modern Rome satisfied them- selves that before they could design on an equality with the ancients they must imitate what the ancients themselves had designed. The Signori Castellani, accordingly, established at Rome a new school for the study and the practice of the Goldsmith's art, which should aim at the perfect imitation and reproduction of ancient and mediaeval works of art in gold and precious stones, each object being executed in such a manner as to show by its style and treatment to what nation and epoch it might be considered to have belonged. But much more had to be done by the founders of the new school of Goldsmiths, than to adopt a resolution to become imitators equal in imitative power to the original powers of their ancient prototypes, and so to triumph in masterly imitation. A searching practical study of their works. Ancient Italo-Greek Goldsmitlis and Jewellery. 85 for the first time made it evident that the ancient jewellers knew and used both chemical and mechanical agents that were unknown to modern art and modern science. The ancient processes of melting, soldering, wire-drawing, and of separating and joining firmly together minute particles of gold scarcely- perceptible to the naked eye, were all equally problems. In a word, without taking into consideration the elegance and variety, and also the thoroughly original conception of the ancient forms, and the rare skill shown in chasing the surfaces of the metal work, the agencies and processes employed in the production of the ancient Greek granulated and filagree works in gold showed themselves to be far superior to those in use amongst the ablest of modern Goldsmiths. Further and still more careful investigation proved the ancient processes of working to be essentially different from those practised throughout modern Europe. Modern Goldsmith's work, as compared with the ancient, appeared more mechanical and less artistic. The most consummate skill, and the most exquisite taste, acting in unison, evidently guided the hands of the ancient artists as they worked ; and so well could they keep the various elements at their command in consistent harmony, that they always were able to permit their works to be intensely elaborated, without ever affecting the chaste elegance and severe unity of the first conception. Hence, admiration for the beauty and lustre of the precious material in which those primaeval Goldsmiths wrought, invariably subsides, and almost vanishes before the feelings that are excited by the supremacy of the Art, and the excellence of the workmanship. Experiments, researches, efforts of every kind, all of them long carried on in every direction with an invincible perseverance beyond all praise, resulted only in failure, until a fortunate chance led to the discovery of what proved to be the key which should lay open the secrets of the Italo-Greek Goldsmiths. So, after a while, the clue was followed along its entire length : the old workmanship again was wedded to the old Art : the Signori Castellani reached in triumph the gaol of retrogression, and qualified for stamping their works with whatever symbol might have done duty as "Hall Mark" in Italy about the year 1000 B.C. 86 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. The revival of ancient Art in gold under practical conditions, as already has been observed, has been by no means restricted to Italy. In England, for several years there has existed a small group of able Goldsmiths, who have produced in great variety works of the highest order, which Royal Goldsmiths among the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians might proudly have put forth as their own c/tefs-d'ceuvre. The same may be affirmed of very many English reproductions from Classic Greek and Roman Art, not forgetting beautiful enamels and mosaic work that may be specially distinguished as Pompeian. Not less meritorious are other English imitations of fine and characteristic relics of early Christian and Byzantine Art ; or the jewellery now produced in England, which has been studied from works in the late mediaeval style of Benvenuto Cellini, and sometimes from the few known authentic examples of the design and workmanship of Cellini himself — that unscrupulous possessor of a marvellous and versatile genius, of whom Vasari writes : — " Cellini, a citizen of Florence, born in 1 500, now a sculptor, had no equal in the Goldsmith's Art when he followed it. He mounted precious stones so beautifully, and decorated them with such wonderful settings, and with such exquisite little figures of so original and fanciful a taste, that nothing can be imagined superior to them." Anglo-Saxon Jewellery, again, upon which much might be said in connection with the early history both of Western Art and of our own country, has had more than a few of its numerous characteristic relics reproduced by modern English hands — repro- duced, however, rather as objects of archaeological interest or curiosity, than as examples of an early national style of the Goldsmith's Art. Indeed, until we shall have established on sound principles a school of English Gothic Art in Gold, it will not be possible for us to point to works really qualified to exemplify a true national style in England. It is but too true that the great majority of our jewellers have so long been permitted to work in the manner of the feeblest and most extravagant forms of the most degraded Renaissance of France, that this very style, in all its vulgar and tawdry insipidity, is commonly regarded to be no less National ArcJuBological Jewellery of Denmark. 87 English than French. It is to be hoped that an era of far better things is dawning upon us ; for, assuredly, now that the Goldsmiths of England have learned to emulate the triumphs of the ancient brethren of their craft in the styles of Egypt, Italy, and Greece, they will not much longer rest content without a style, in high intrinsic merit and through historical association worthy to be entitled " English," which they may feel proud to claim as indeed their own. Meanwhile, yielding to none of their contemporary fellow- craftsmen either in archaeological zeal or in ability to reproduce ancient relics in the ancient manner, the Goldsmiths of Denmark enjoy the peculiarly delightful advantage of identifying their archaeological success with the revival of the true national style of their country. Danish Archaeology in gold is Danish Art in gold. And Danish Goldsmiths, while now they imitate and reproduce ancient relics, work in a style that indeed is their own, — a style, too, which is found to harmonize the more perfectly with the existing current of taste, and the more thoroughly to accord with the requirements and uses of the time now present, precisely in the degree that it is the more faithfully developed in loving conformity with ancient authority. Upon qualities such as these, the National Archaeological Jewellery of Denmark can now rely in happy confidence, when aspiring to secure an ever-increasing popularity in England ; for, may it not be added, that in the characteristic qualities of this Danish Jewellery, there is infinitely more of what is true and noble in Art, and consequently, that it has infinitely stronger claims for popularity than can be adduced on behalf of the entire range of the Renaissance, whether it may have prevailed in Italy, in France, or in England .'' And, moreover, may we not even study ancient Scandinavian Art for our own instruction and guidance here in England, with results that may be favourably compared with the advantages we derive from studying the relics of ancient Art in the South and the East.' Fashions in jewellery may change, and change, doubtless, they will, with changing eras in human history ; but a love for jewels is an enduring passion, fixed, and, indeed, to all appearance innate, in the human heart. Every 88 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. woman admires jewels, because she knows them to be the most precious of adornments for her own person. And because women instinctively regard jewels as pre-eminently the most becoming accessories of female beauty, every man admires them also, — perhaps in the case of some men, this admiration may extend so far as to imply an inclination in the direction of jewellery on their own behalf Be this as it may, under the fostering influence of this love for jewels and jewellery, the Arts of the Goldsmith and the Lapidary have flourished from the earliest ages and among all races of mankind ; and the degree of excellence in these Arts to which men attained in remote periods is so extraordinary, that we ourselves now regard their works with equal astonishment and admiration. The relics of their Goldsmith's work have taught us in England no longer to look upon our Anglo-Saxon forefathers as a rude and uncultivated race, fierce, indeed, in war, but ignorant altogether of the softer Arts of peace. Precisely in the same manner, the Scandinavian Goths, who long ago established themselves in Denmark, have honourably vindicated their civilization by bequests of their jewellery in gold. Thus, in Denmark and in England, brethren of their craft working in the same in- . destructible metal, were fellow-workers with the Italo-Greek Goldsmiths who lived and died in that elder antiquity which passed away before Rome had Wion for herself a name in the world, but under whom the most accom- plished artists of Imperial Rome might have reverently studied. And now we are awaiting the presence of some of the last found relics of the same pre-Roman era, which at length have been exhumed on that spot of deathless renown where once Troy was. Again, from the works of Goldsmiths, the history of ancient Art may expect the addition of a fresh and perfectly original chapter, when contemporary works as well of Trojan as of Greek Art in gold of the very era of the ten years' siege are lying side by side. This Trojan jewellery can scarcely fail to illus- trate from a hitherto unsuspected point of view the grand old "tale of Troy divine," as assuredly it will give fresh point to the but too touching tale told by .(Eneas to the Phoenician Queen. Perhaps this same Trojan Priam attd Achilles. — T/torvaldseii s Bas-rclicf. 89 jewellery may contain duplicates of the collo inonile baccatum, z.nA the corotia duplex aiiro gemmisque, which the adventurous Dardan Prince succeeded in carrying away with him on the fatal night of the catastrophe of his loved and lamented Ilium : as, possibly, Castellani may have discovered in Italy and already brought to our far away island some of the veritable jewels that the " pious " son of old Anchises, more fortunate in the land of his exile than in that of his birth, obtained from Italo-Greek Goldsmiths, and gave to Lavinia, poor Creusa's, and also unhappy Dido's, Latin successor. The expectation of seeing real Trojan Goldsmith's work which I record at the conclusion of this Chapter, naturally has led me to select, as a final illustration, Thorvaldscn's beautiful bas-relief of Priam beseeching Achilles to restore to him, for honourable interment, the dead body of Hector. This touching incident, described with such true pathos in the Iliad, has been a favourite subject with artists who loved the legends and the myths that live in antique Art. Equally popular also with artists of the archaic Greek age was the scene of the aged Trojan king kneeling before the slayer of his son, and offering a ransom for his corpse. In^ his learned and exhaustive treatise on " Ancient Gems," Mr. King gives a graphic description of the treatment of this subject in an antique gem, which he pronounces to be " a perfect example of a Greek picture." Priam kneels at the feet of the seated Achilles, the group being completed by the introduction of the commiserating Briseis and a guard of two myrmidons ; while a large caduceus in the field alludes to the guidance of Hermes on the aged king's dangerous expedition : — " Quhi et Atridas, duce te, supcrbos, Ilio, dives Priamiis, relicto, Thessalosquc ignes el iniqtia Trojte Castra fcfellU:' " Nothing," says Mr. King, " can be imagined more perfect than the drawing of the figures themselves, added to the accuracy of the features, and the minutest details in Priam's costume and the warrior's armour : the grouping M go Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. also is most effective in its admirable simplicity." I quote these words of Mr. King, not only because they show with what true feeling for ancient Art he writes upon gems, but also because they describe so well the noble bas-relief in which the great sculptor of Denmark has portrayed the pathetic scene, to be followed by the sad solemity of the day when — " They bare knightly Hector to his grave." ■* i^ &T 9k s J m^^i Hr T Ji^ \r^^^^^^ iXj/|^ 1^ m B m^ i f No. 41. — Pkiam seeking tu kansom the dead bodv ok Hectok from Achilles. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen. Danish Terra Cotta. 91 No. 4a. — HVDRIA. Modelled in Danish Terra Cotta from an ancient Greek Vase, the Group painted after Flaxman's " Triumph of Neptune." CHAPTER IV. DANISH TERRA COTTA. Its special Qualities, Varieties, Treatment, and Artistic Character; with a glance at the History of the Etruscans, and at the Ancient Terra Cotta of Grxcia Magna. " The plastic clay, obedient to command, In forms determined by the Potter's hand. Now rises graceful, modelled in such guise As Greeks of old imagined, and now vies With bounteous Nature, striving to express, By Art instructed, her own loveliness." — The Critic. " Like monument of Grecian Art." — Lady of the Lake. lERRA COTTA i.s baked or kiln-hardened earth. But, used in a more restricted sense, as a definite technical term. Terra Cotta is understood to distinguish certain fine, silicious, plastic clays, naturally varying in colour from a pale buff to a rich deep red, from which, Aris and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. by the Potter's Art, and through the process of " firing," various objects may be produced, all of them qualified to receive true artistic treatment. While Porcelain always is translucent in a greater or lesser degree, Terra Cotta is always opaque. Terra Cotta admits a glaze ; or it may be finished in an unglazed condition. Works produced in Terra Cotta may be classified in two great groups : in the one of which groups are included vases of every variety, with all objects having inner and outer surfaces ; and the other group com- prehends every variety of object which has an exterior surface only, and therefore it includes statues, statuettes, medallions, plaques, architectural accessories, and decorations of all kinds, &c. As a matter of course, Terra Cotta clays are found to be naturally endowed with qualities greatly modified in different regions of the earth. To the supreme excellence of their Terra Cotta clays, Italy and Greece in no slight degree are indebted for their illustrious rank and their ancient fame in the domain of Art. Here, in our own country, in England, we now are aware of the existence of several fine deposits of Terra Cotta clays. Denmark, again, yields in plentiful abundance a clay of the same order, possessing qualities specially its own, which enables the Danish ceramists of the present day in their Terra Cotta works to rival the greatest of their ancient predecessors, while among their contemporaries they may justly claim to occupy a foremost position in the front rank. The Terra Cotta clay of Denmark, in colour naturally a pale and delicate buff of a peculiarly pleasing tint, is rich in the all-important silicious element in its composition, while in texture it is so fine that it is capable of producing bas-relief medallions not larger than cameo-gems, _in which the figures have the sharpness of the gems themselves, with a surface of exquisite and silk-like softness. With a material such as this at their command, with the Thorvaldsen Museum also always ready both to suggest its own use, and at the same time to provide the noblest models for using it with the happiest effect, it would have been indeed strange had the ceramic manufacturers and artists of Copenhagen failed either to discern the qualities and to appreciate the value of their Terra Cotta clay, or to direct its capabilities to their fullest Tlu Etruscans. 93 development. The Danish Terra Cotta Collections in Bond Street, presently to be described, are faithful witnesses which give the best and most conclusive evidence, on the one hand, as to the real character of the Terra Cotta of Denmark; and, on the other hand, as to the artistic treatment displayed in the various classes of works of this order, which are produced in the great establishment at Copenhagen. These Danish works in Terra Cotta, or " Danish Terra Cottas," may be generally classified as follows: — i. Vases and Tazzi ; 2. Statuettes after Thorvaldsen, Bissen, and some other Sculptors ; 3. Small grotesque and humorous figures of the " Nisser," the dwarf-elves of Norse mythology ; 4. Small figures of Danish peasantry, animals, &c. ; and 5. Decorative and useful objects in endless variety. Since the beautiful Terra Cotta Vkses and Tazzi of Denmark are either actual reproductions of famous Italo-Greek and Etruscan prototypes, or in many important particulars follow the guidance of ancient classic models, it appears desirable here to preface any description of modern Danish Terra Cottas with some brief notice of the Italian potters who flourished in an early antiquity, and whom the most scientific and accomplished of their living successors reverently accept as their honoured instructors, guides, and authorities. The painted vases of a remote era that have been discovered in the sepulchral chambers of central Italy, by an implied tacit consent were so long and so generally assigned to the ancient Etruscans that, without any definite ideas as to who those ancient Etruscans may have been, the distinctive term " Etruscan " was habitually given, as their proper title, to all ancient vases or similar works in Terra Cotta that might be brought to light in Umbria or the adjoining regions of the Italian peninsula. The recently revived spirit of archaeological inquiry and research, however, has not rested content without at least resolute endeavours to determine with approximate accuracy the actual nationality of the pre-historic Italian race, who, before they disappeared from the surface of the earth, committed to the safe keeping of the earth itself vast 94 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. collections of their works, all of them remarkable for grace and beauty of form, and very many of them adorned with pictorial compositions that are among the most interesting of mythic and historical pictures, as they certainly are the most ancient pictures, known to be in existence in Europe. The question of Etruscan nationality proved to be no less difficult than attractive. Still, this vexed question may be considered at length to have been set at rest, a rational and satisfactory solution of the difficulties attending it having been obtained through the interpretation of ancient historical notices by the light of modern archaeological evidence. The primaeval aborigines of Umbria were a Celtic race, cognate to that race which, at a considerably later and yet at a very early period, preserved its nationality upon the lakes of Helvetia. Some ten centuries before our era, and consequently about the time of the great conflict of the warlike chiefs of Hellas with Troy, some of the primitive natives of the Greek islands and of the coasts of Greece crossed over their sea to the shores of Italy, and there established themselves, driving the majority of the aboriginal Celts inland, where they succeeded in maintaining their independence till the power of Rome had become strong. Those primitive Greeks, the Pelasgi, brought with them to Italy their archaic Arts and alphabet, as the relics in their tombs at Cumae testify. As time advanced, these Italiote Pelasgi (Pelasgi settlers in Italy, that is) flourished and built important cities, all of them maritime, in the country in which they became naturalized. But advancing time also brought another migrating race to Italy. Pliny (ill. 8) has recorded, that the " Umbrians (aboriginal Celtic occupants of Umbria) were expelled by the Pelasgi, who in their turn were expelled by Lydians, afterwards called Tyrrheni, from the name of their king." " Expelled " in this passage — at any rate with reference to the Italiote Pelasgi — really implies subjugated, or superseded in supreme authority. The emigrants from the Lesser Asia succeeded in possessing themselves of the Pela.sgic conquests in Umbria, partly by force, and partly by alliances. Thus was formed a Con- federation of mixed races rather than a distinct nationality, in part Italo-Greek The Etruscan Confederation. 95 and in part Asiatic, from Lydia, which became known from the name of the Lydian chief who so successfully led the migrating bands of his countrymen, as " Tyrrheni," " Tuscans," or " Etruscans." These Tyrrhene settlers along the coast of Italy, who found the Pelasgi there before them, were a wealthy, ingenious, and more especially an imitative people ; they brought with them no regular Art, such artistic ideas as they had being palpably influenced by Asiatic — that is, by Assyrian — associations and imagery, derived by them, together with some scanty reminiscences of Egyptian Art, from the Phoenicians, their old allies, themselves also a race of apt and ingenious copyists. The Tyrrheni, when established in Italy, accordingly, had no other models in the Arts than such as they saw already in the possession of the Italiote Pelasgi, their subjects or allies ; and having a genius keenly susceptible of culture, though uninventive, they set vigorously to work to naturalize among them- selves the Pelasgic Arts. And this they were the more readily enabled to accomplish, since, having no special mythology of their own, they adopted that of the Greeks ; and thus their adoption of Pelasgic Art, blended with Pelasgic mythology by the Italiote Lydians, acted powerfully in consummating that fusion of races which produced the Confederation, or quasi-nationality of the Etruscans. It must be added, in order to complete this sketch of the hybrid character of the Etruscan people, which in so remarkable a manner is expressed in the hybrid character of Etruscan Art, that at an early time there certainly occurred another immigration into central Italy, which took place from the North, the immigrants being an unknown — but possibly a Gothic — race, settled in the Appennines and in the plains of the Po. These northern settlers in Umbria, finding both the Greek Pelasgi and the Lydian Tyrrheni already established on the coasts, united with them in reducing to serfdom such of the aboriginal Celts as failed to escape into the interior of the country ; and eventually they became a component element of the Etruscan Confederation. Should these last settlers from the North have actually been Goths, they may have formed a connecting link, forged in those early days, between the Etruscans and the Danes. 96 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. Pure Greek Art, such as it was when carried by the Pelasgi from Hellas into Italy, the mixed Etruscans cultivated and, tinged with Phoenician influences, they made their own, equalling the Greek models so far as the archaic style extended. The ancient love of the Etruscans for Greek culture, indeed, is strikingly manifested in the decorations of those Etruscan remains, concerning the origin of which no doubt or uncertainty can exist. The designs of these decorations, portrayed with much intelligence of the meaning intended to be conveyed by them as well as with great spirit and refined taste, display on the part of the artists a perfect acquaintance with Greek story ; at the same time, the Greek myths are found to be explained — probably for the benefit of the community at large — in the original native language of the dominant Asiatic race ; and hence the repugnant genius of the two languages of the Pelasgi and the Tyrrheni is significantly apparent in the strangely distorted forms the heroic names are constrained to assume. From time to time, while the Etruscan state flourished, the pure Greek Art of Hellas visited Umbria through the instrumentality of little colonies of artists, painters, and modellers, who were expelled from Greece by the perpetual revolutions distracting their native country, and naturally sought the patronage of the wealthy and Art-loving masters of Italy, in some degree also kinsmen of their own. This, in fact, seems to have been a rehearsal some five or six centuries before, and on the same stage, then the scene of Etruscan power, of the patronage of Greek artists in every department of Art that characterized the proud era of the Empire of Rome. Whatever welcome they might have always in readiness awaiting the arrival of Greek artists, the Etruscans them- selves did not improve upon the archaic Art of the Italiote Pelasgi ; for the archaic style prevailed in Hellas itself until the decline of Etruscan power, which, severely shaken at Cumae, was ruined by the fatal fight with the Romans under Fabius, at lake Vadimon, B.C. 309 — a fight, as Livy says, which "frcgit Etruscorum opes!' From this sketch of what may be accepted as correct outlines of their history, it may be inferred that the ancient Etruscans, themselves a mixed race, Ancient Greek and Etruscan Terra Cotta. 97 were zealous and enterprising workers in Terra Cotta ; and, therefore, their productions, which have come down to our times uninjured by the lapse of decades of centuries and in astonishing numbers, share with the similar works of ancient Italiote Greeks in the priceless lessons they give to all workers and artists in Terra Cotta throughout all time. It appears also that the ancient vases discovered in central Italy are to be classified in the manner following : — I. Italo-Pelasgic, being the earliest of the archaic period, antecedent to the arrival of the Tyrrheni ; 2. Etruscan, also archaic in style, with indications of Phoenician influences and Asiatic legends ; 3. Italiote Greek, of the later archaic period, closing about B.C. 335; 4. Italiote Greek, of the finest period; and Italiote Greek, of the decadence, after B.C. 225. These vases in colour are found to be brown, pale yellow or buff, red and black. The less important varieties are constantly unglazed ; but all the finer and more perfect Vcises are glazed, this glaze being either black, or fine and thin and both lustrous and transparent. Vases of various shapes and sizes were used by the Greeks and Etruscans for every conceivable purpose which it would be possible for them to accomplish. The subjects represented upon them, often doubtless suggested by contemporary works of eminent sculptors and painters, or by the writings of the favourite authors of the day, for the most part represent mythic scenes, genuine historical subjects, unfortunately, being rare. But the true glory of the vases of ancient Italy consists in the gracefulness and beauty of their shapes. It is in their application of form in Art that the Greeks enjoy a pre-eminence exclusively their own. Whatever the particular aim of the Greek potter, and whatever the purpose which his work might be destined to serve, the plastic material under his command never failed to assume either a chaste simplicity, or a dignified nobleness of form. Greek vases, accordingly, and Etruscan vases with them, are to be studied not merely in consequence of their archaeological and artistic interest, but also as examples of the most masterly treatment of Ceramic Art. In very many instances the ancient vases may be accepted at all times as faultless models to be reproduced without change or modification. Again, in other instances, while peculiarly adapted to N 98 , Arts and ^irtistic Manufactures of Denmark. the tastes and the uses of the Greeks and Etruscans of antiquity, these vases may have ceased to fulfil the requirements of an existing generation. Cases may arise, therefore, in which the modern potter would judiciously decline to produce mere servile imitations of even the noblest ancient models, since, for all desirable purposes, they may long have become obsolete ; and yet he never will fail to remember that in the humblest as well as in the most important vases of the Greeks he may find subjects for careful and thoughtful study, certain to learn from them by what means he may improve the practical application of his own art, without sacrificing its originality or perverting its usefulness. When they applied painting to their beautifully formed vases, the ancient artists did much more than increase their commercial value, and improve their appearance as objects of adornment or of daily use. Their vases thus were, unconsciously, empowered to transmit to distant ages the traditions of the ancient Greek and Etruscan schools of Art ; and they became an inexhaustible, as always a felicitously consistent, source for illustrating the mythology, the manners, customs, and literature of the Greece and Italy of antiquity. From Herodotus, we learn that Greek vases had attained to a distinguished celebrity as early as in the time of Homer. That their ceramic artists were held in high estimation by the Greeks themselves some centuries later is unquestionably certain, since it is well known that they erected statutes of them and struck medals in their honour. The names of the most eminent of the Greek ceraniic artists were handed down to posterity, as men in whom their country might feel a just pride ; so, we well know the inventor of modelling in Terra Gotta to have been Dibutates of Sicyon. In now seeking for figures to be represented upon the Terra Gotta vases of the Denmark of to-day from the noblest works of Thorvaldsen, as in associating Flaxman with Wedgwood in England, we follow the example set by the greatest masters of antiquity ; for Pheidias and Myron, the grandest of Greek sculptors, and Polycletus, the illustrious architect, gave designs to artists who painted Terra Cotta vases in their own times. But as the Roman power culminated, with their other Danish Terra Cotta Vases. 99 Arts, the ceramic Art of the Greeks declined, and became degenerate. In the time of Julius Caesar, accordingly, the fine Terra Cotta vases of Greece were rare. That the operations of the potter were held to be consistent with those of the sculptor at the commencement of the Third Century is shown in a pleasing manner in an intaglio gem, now in the Marlborough Collection, which represents the interior of a sculptor's studio, with the artist himself at work upon a bust, while beside him are tall vases just finished. This gem, of which the date is about a.d. 220, is signed IX0YS, and therefore it may be assumed to be the work of a Christian artist of that early era. With the decline of the Empire, the Art of the potter may be said to have died, crushed and extinguished by the devastations of the barbarians, and amidst the wars of No. 43. — 0lp&. No. 44. — Kantharos. No. 45. — Lekythos. No. 46. — Kratek. the fourth .and fifth centuries. And yet it was rather to a long deep sleep, a sleep of fifteen centuries, than death, that the Art of the potter was doomed to experience ; since, early in the fifteenth century, and once more on Italian soil, that Art again revived. But the revival was to take place under fresh conditions, the long-buried treasures of the Italiote Greeks having to rest through other centuries, till they should eventually disclose their existence as crowning rewards to modern archaeological exploration. Vases. — The Terra Cotta vases from Copenhagen which now form one of the collections in the Bond Street Galleries, being designed to be exclusively works of a decorative character, have been modelled with scrupulous fidelity. lOO Arls and Artistic Mamtfactiires of Denmark. after ancient models which have been found in the sepulchres of Umbria and the adjoining regions of central Italy — after vases, that is, which were moulded and painted by ancient Italiote Greeks or Etruscans. These Danish repro- ductions of ancient vases include all the most beautiful and graceful forms, the Amphora, in every modification of its fine contours, taking the foremost rank. The Olpb and the Lekythos of the Greeks, in their earliest typical forms, are represented in wood-cuts, Nos. 43 and 45 ; and the Greek Kantharos, No. 44, is another archaic form of singular elegance. No. 47 gives an example of the Olpk, modelled from the antique in Danish Terra Cotta, with chaste classic decoration, at once simple and beautiful. No. 46, represents a vase, the ancient Krater, well known in its typical contour to modern potters and ceramic artists. In the Royal Danish Galleries, vases of these and of several other equally beautiful forms, and in several modifications of each distinct type, may be seen in every variety of size, from dimensions that are colossal to tiny gems that are scarcely two inches in height. They are made plain, in a pale buff colour, and in a warmer buff ; in several tints of red ; and in black. Other vases, having grounds of these same colours, are enriched with diverse ornamentation, executed, for the most part, after the manner adopted with such triumphant success by the ceramic artists of antiquity. I am specially anxious here to direct particular attention to the fact that the fine and noble forms of the ancient vases by no means require that reproductions of the vases themselves should exclusively be associated with reproductions of their ancient decorations. On the contrary, vases modelled in the ancient Greek and Etruscan forms readily admit, as in perfect harmony with themselves, ornamentation adapted from modern works designed with antique taste and feeling; and, with equal readiness, they No. 47. — Olp^. Danish Terra Cotta. lOI welcome other ornamentation, of whatsoever kind, if it be true to both Nature and Art, since thus it must necessarily harmonize with all true beauty and nobleness of form. In their application of painted groups of natural flowers, absolutely free from all conventionality of treatment, to glazed black vases of the finest antique forms, the Danish ceramic artists have boldly introduced a class of decorative works, which are thoroughly original, extremely beautiful, and in perfect taste. The glazed black floral vases are made in many gradations of size, from the smallest to such as are of ample dimensions. One of the larger specimens, in form an Egyptian Amphora, is represented in No. 48. This same form of vase in buff Terra Cotta is also decorated in styles that may be distinguished as " Pompeian " and " Egyptian," the designs having been carefully studied from ancient authorities, and executed in gold, white, blue, red, and black. The very small — and many of them are, indeed, very small — glazed black vases and tazzi with painted flowers are without rivals as charming little gems of ceramic Art. The Bond Street Collections also in- clude black vases, ornamented with figures, and conventional devices and foliage in a rich scarlet red ; others with delicately- painted landscapes and flowers, with devices in gold and red ; others, in which the orna- mentation of Egyptian character is executed in gold and blue ; and others, again, are enriched with figures in red, with gold accessories, or their adornment is executed only in a dark red. The red vases exhibit three varieties of tint : — of the pale red variety, some vases have Egyptian ornamentation in gold. No. 48.— Black Amphora (Egyptian), in Danish Terra Cotta, with floral decorations in natural colours. 102 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. white, dark red, and black ; others, in blue and black ; others, in a dark red or brown : the vases of a middle red have their ornamentation either in black, or in black and dark red ; and the dark red vases have black figures, or black figures on bands of buff, or pale red figures on buff, or figures and devices in either buff or black ; or they are " Pompeian," with decorations in black, white, and red. The buff vases, in various shapes, in their decoration are either " Egyptian," or " Pompeian," or they have figures and various devices painted on them in either black or dark red ; and there also are vases having flowers, with conventional designs in dark red, painted on grounds of a warm buff tint. Some of the largest vases, and more than a few of the examples of middle size, are adorned with classic mythological or heroic compositions, with Greek accessories, painted either in red with black lines upon a black ground, or in black upon a buff ground. These very fine works are faithful reproductions of the paintings upon the finest ancient Greek vases, and they exhibit numerous groups and examples of single figures, rendered with admirable spirit and in the true antique feeling. They will be found amply to repay close and thoughtful study, while being objects upon which the eye always must rest with unwearied gratification. The same remarks are no less justly applicable to the long array of Danish vases, moulded in the same forms, and exhibiting the same style and manner of treatment, in which, while the minor painted accessories are pure Greek, the figure-subjects have been adapted from the works of Thorvaldsen. The felicitous harmony that exists between the compositions of the great Danish Sculptor and the purest Greek accessories upon a vase that in its form is Greek, is admirably exemplified in the fine reproduction in Danish Terra Gotta of a Greek Amphora, represented in No. 49. The figure-subject here is from the " Autumn," one of Thor- valdsen's series of four bas-relief medallions illustrative of the " Seasons." This vase is one example of a very numerous collection, comprising various modifications of its own order, and, of course, exhibiting a variety of decorative subjects. No. 50, page 104, representing an especially graceful form of the Danish Terra Cotta. 103 Greek Lekythos, has painted upon it Thorvaldsen's statue, "Jason," already noticed in Chapter II. (pages 17 and 29), with conventional Greek orna- mentation. In a beautiful reproduction of a Greek Hydria, or water vase, having three handles, No. 42 (at the head of this Chapter), the ceramic artists Xo. 49.— Amphora. Modelled in DaDish Terra Cotta from the Greek, with figures from Thorvaldsen's liAS-relief " .Autumn." of Copenhagen have chosen for their figure-subject, not any work of their illustrious fellow-countryman, but the severely grand group, the " Triumph of Neptune," by our own Flaxman. Another Danish reproduction of a beautiful form of Greek vase, distinguished as Lcpastb, represented in No. 51, page 105, 104 Ar^s and Artistic Mamifacttires of Denmark. has received its painted figures from Thorvaldsen's bas-relief, the Ages of Love, engraved in full at the head of Chapter V. Other vases in the Collections in the Danish Galleries, the greater number of them presenting some modification of the AmpJiora form, are adorned with painted reproductions of various favourite subjects among both the statues and the bas-reliefs of Thorvaldsen, including his statues of Hope; Hebe, No. 6, page 9 ; Psyclie ; and Cupid and Psyclu, No. 12, page 33 : also his bas-reliefs, Briseis, Hector and Andromache, Tlie Seasons, Night and Dawti, various Cupids, the Nest of Loves, No. 18, page 64, and many others. The seated shepherdess, with her faithful atten- dant dog, and the nest upon her lap, in which some of the winged nestlings are awaking, while one already has taken flight and escaped, one of the Sculptor's most graceful compositions, was modelled by him at Rome in 1 83 1. Treating the same subject in one of his engravings, Bartolozzi has represented a shepherdess finding in a wood a nest of full-fledged Loves. Thus, the presence of these compositions stamps the vases that are produced in Danish Terra Cotta with the impress of a happily significant nationality of character. With the vases are associated Tazzi modelled after the purest types of the antique Kylix and Skyphos in Danish Terra Cotta, which also assume every variety of size, and share with the vases in their varied styles of adornment, and always with the same success in treatment and happy effectiveness. I must express here an earnest desire to see the works of Bissen and Jerichau, national Danish sculptors like Thorvaldsen himself, introduced upon the classic Terra Cotta vases of Denmark ; and I venture to anticipate a peculiarly gratifying result from the presence of painted reproductions of Bissen's Norse sculptures, as well as of his classic subjects, under the same conditions that accompany the No. 50. — Lekythos, with Thorvaldsen's "Jason, Danish Terra Cotta. 105 introduction of Thorvaldsen's compositions upon vases modelled, with Greek forms, in Danish Terra Cotta. In connection with their reproductions of ancient relics discovered in the sepulchres of classic Italy, but in themselves forming a distinct class of works, the ceramic manufacturers and artists of Denmark produce in Terra Cotta fac-simile models of other ancient vases that have been brought to light in their own country. For the early sepulchral deposits of Denmark, like those of the corresponding eras in both England and France, rarely fail to contain No. 5i. — LEi'Asrfe. With group from ITiorvaldsen's " Ages of Love." fictile vessels, many of them of no slight beauty of form and delicacy ot ornamentation, which, in long past times, in some way were used at interments in the northern and western countries of Europe. The ancient Danish vases exhibit a severe simplicity of form, not devoid of a certain dignified elegance, which the modern Danes rightly consider to qualify them either for partial imitation or exact reproduction. These modern Danish reproductions of ancient Danish vases, comparatively few in number, do not shrink from a comparison with archaic relics of their own order ffom the South, nor are o io6 Arts attd Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. they unworthy of admiration when tried by their intrinsic merits. In Plate V., a series of engraved examples of modern Danish Terra Cotta models of ancient Norse vases gives the best description of these interesting relics of the northern potters of distant times. No. 56 is distinguished as the Tkyra Vase ; and it is ornamented with the same peculiar devices that appccir upon the early incised monumental stones of the North. Statuettes and Medallions. — For the production of works in both these classes, the Terra Cotta of Denmark, from the exquisite delicacy of its pale buff tint combined with the fine softness of its texture, may be said to know no rival. At present, however, the statuettes and the medallions and plaques in bas-relief that are produced in great numbers at Copenhagen, for the most part are executed in biscuit, in preference to the far more beautiful Terra Cotta. The few works of the classes in question, accordingly, that now take their places with the other Terra Cottas in the Royal Danish Galleries, may fairly be regarded only as specimens of what their beautiful material can produce in Danish hands ;, and I add a hope, that these specimens may speedily be followed by numerous companion-works, all of them as worthy of high admiration as are the Venics (No. 61, j^^ page 30), the Mercury, the Hebe, the Psyche (No. 6t„ see page 33), two Cupids, the Hope (No. 62), and the Angel of Baptism, and Jerichau's grand Panther Hunter; with the Thorvaldsen medallions, the Dawn and Night, and the Four Seasons, and the bas-relief of Genius and Art. The medallions sometimes have the field of deep red or maroon colour, the bas-reliefs being in the natural tint of the Terra Cotta — a treatment attended with a truly fine effect. I am unable to take leave of these singularly attractive medallions, and such plaques as might so well be associated with them, without suggesting their special applicability for the decoration of the panels of high-class furniture, precisely as Flaxman's bas-reliefs and cameos of Wedgewood-ware are occasionally used. The medallions in two tints would be effective in the highest degree under such conditions. I am confident, indeed, that this suggestion has but to be subjected to the test of experiment to become very generally adopted. Plate V. — 107 >:^Y-^VKVvuu u yyyyyyy//y.^^^^^ No. 52. No. 55. No. 58. No. 53. Ha. 5+ No. 56. No. 57, No. 59. No. 60. Nos. 53, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, & 60, Vases. Reproduced in Dsmish Terra Cotta, (rom Ancient Norse Examples preserved in the National Museum at Copenhagen. Plate VI. — in Danish Terra Cotta. I13 Miscellaneous Objects, — which comprise both such as are useful and ornamental, and also include those numberless productions of tasteful minds and skilful hands in which utility is blended with ornamentation, with a perfect No. 69.— Terra Cotta Flower Stand. With statuette of a Nisse. host of little things not dreamed of in the most fertile imaginations of the potters of antiquity, — ^these must rest content with being noticed in general terms only. Many of the Terra Cottas of this comprehensive and numerous P 114 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. class, are able to establish claims to take rank with works of a more ambitious character — witness No. 70, with its classic form and its decoration with the Dawn after Thorvaldsen himself Again, the Flower Stand, No. 69, in its own class is a work of rare merit ; it is favoured also with a statuette of another of the Nisser, joyously hastening to hide somebody's money-bag — he does not possess one of his own — among the flowers, when they shall No, 70. — Water Cooler and Stand. cluster around him. In No. 71, is represented an example of Terra Cotta basket-work, in which fine threads of the clay are taught to yield to treatment natural to the ozier ; the effect is light and elegant. Not the least satisfactory of these Terra Cottas are the Flower Vases and Flower Pots, sometimes ornamented with appropriate bas-reliefs from the national treasure-house of Art. Tazzi, card-trays, jewel-stands, boxes, accessories innumerable for the drawing-room, the chimney-piece, and the toilette-table, et id genus omne. Danish Terra Cotta. "5 with whatever may consistently be suspended from the branches of Christmas- trees, combine to contribute to this concluding class of the productions in Danish Terra Cotta, that in unwearied succession travel direct from Copen- hagen to London, London itself then becoming to them a common point of departure in every direction that the gigantic net-work of railways leads around London and away from it A few words — and they may be very few — must be added, in order to express a hope that we may see in London, among the other works for which we have a cordial welcome, some specimens of architectural accessories and ornamentation modelled and moulded in Danish Terra Cotta. Perhaps it may be best to leave this last brief sentence, without an additional word, to suggest all that might be suggested at great length and with fulness of detail, upon the important question that it submits for consideration. No. 71. — Card Tazza, In Danish Terra Cotta basket-work. ii6 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. No. 72. — The Ages of Love. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen- CHAPTER V. DANISH PORCELAIN AND BISCUIT. Descriptive Notices of the Porcelain and Biscuit of Denmark — their Varieties, and distinctive and characteristic Features. " Seeking to provide in the simplest and most obvious way for the manifold require- ments of every day human life, Man first exercised his ovsrn creative powers in forming various objects of that very dust of the earth from which, in the beginning, his own physical frame had been created." — The Ceramist. " There, ranged in order long, both far and near, Forms grave and graceful, gentle and severe. Silent were standing." — ^Vision of Eld. j]ORCELAIN, as distinguished from Pottery, has been defined to be a ceramic production composed of a translucent white body covered with a transparent glaze. Thus, Porcelain occupies a position midway between pottery and glass. This beautiful and universally admired ware is presumed to be of Chinese or Japanese origin, and certainly was known and manufactured in both China and Japan from a very early period. The isolation, however, which it was the policy of the natives of those countries Oriental Porcelain. 117 to maintain during so many ages, coupled with the guarded secrecy that all along enveloped their manufacturing processes, until a comparatively recent period rendered hopeless the attainment of any credible and satisfactory information relative either to the rise and progress of that particular local industry distinguished as "Porcelain manufacture," or to the actual processes employed in the production of the ware itself. Marco Polo, the Venetian, the first European who is recorded to have penetrated into China and to have explored Chinese productions on their own soil, returned from his famous Oriental travels to Venice in 1295, and died there in 1323 ; writing before the close of the thirteenth century, he alludes to the extent and importance at that time of the porcelain manu- factures of the Celestial Empire. It seems highly probable that Chinese porcelain had been exported to other Eastern countries many centuries before it was seen by Marco Polo in China ; but it was very slow in finding its way westwards into Europe. In 1474, the Venetian ambassador at the Court of Persia considered it to be his duty to submit to his Government a special communication on the subject of this manufacture. Fifteen years later, in 1489, among other rare and costly presents, an envoy from the Soldan of Egypt brought to Lorenzo di Medici some large vases of Chinese porcelain — vassi grandi di porcellana. Early in the following century, the Portuguese, the first adventurers who doubled the Cape, imported fine ceramic wares from the East in large quantities into Europe ; and, from that period, the different European nations gradually became familiarized with porcelain. Cavendish, the celebrated traveller in the time of Queen Elizabeth, is generally supposed to have presented to his Royal Mistress the first pieces of Oriental porcelain that came to England ; but it has also been considered that a few specimens of this precious ware had anticipated Cavendish's present, and, indeed, had been brought to these shores before the close of the reign of Henry VII. In the year 1600, the English East India Company was formed ; but it did not succeed in establishing a regular importation of porcelain until after it had been thirty years in operation. And even then the Chinese Il8 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. maintained their ancient systematic refusal to export the finest, richest, and most valuable of their porcelain, except in very rare instances; until after the eighteenth century had made some advance also, the porcelain known and used in Europe was exclusively of Oriental production, and imported from the East. It was in the year 17 12 that important information relative to the actual manufacture of this hitherto mysterious ware, accompanied with specimens of the two principal materials used in the manufacturing processes, reached Paris ; and then these specimens formed the basis of a series of experiments by Reaumur that ultimately led, — when at length the existence in France of the proper materials had been accidentally discovered, — to the production of the true and fine porcelain of Sevres. The old alliance between the production of porcelain and exclusiveness and secrecy was by no means dissolved when Frenchmen were enabled to make their own " China," instead of importing it from the Chinese. For a while, at Sevres, mystery reigned with a sway no less supreme than she had ever exercised at King-te-tchin itself This state of things, however, could endure only for a while. In due time, the grand secrets of Sevres ceased altogether to be secrets ; at all events, the real nature of the materials used in the production of porcelain, and the actual processes employed in working those materials, became generally known ; and so, in other European countries as well as in France, and in some countries in several places under distinct conditions, great establishments arose for manufacturing porcelain. Always practical, always active also in carrying out into consistent action , the practical qualities of her national character, DENMARK was neither in- different to the importance of the local manufacture of porcelain, nor slow in availing herself of the means at her disposal for the production of Danish Porcelain. The Royal Porcelain Manufactory at Copenhagen, which now has been established about 100 years, from the commencement of its career included within the range of its operations every variety and class of objects legitimately produced in porcelain, and aimed high in producing only such porcelain as would be distinguished for its excellence. The materials in use Danish Porcelain. 119 at the Copenhagen establishment, in the all-important qualities essential for forming truly fine porcelain-paste, are inferior to none that are employed in the great manufactories of other countries ; the character of their works, consequently, was left to the ceramists of Copenhagen, to be determined by their own manipulative skill and dexterity, acting in union with their taste and judgment in adopting the forms best suited to each class of object, and their ability as artists to select and apply the happiest and most beautiful ornamentation. The result has been that, when in competition with the kindred productions of other countries, the Danish Porcelain has never failed to maintain its position in the first rank ; and now, when it appears in its own National Galleries on English ground and in the British Metropolis, and while there it is associated almost exclusively with the other artistic manu- factures of its own country, this same Danish Porcelain is well content to rest its claims for the same dignified rank upon its own character and qualities. Danish Porcelain, as it is exemplified in the Royal Danish Galleries in Bond Street, appears in two distinct varieties ; the one has considerable substance, and therefore its translucence is comparatively slight ; and the other, which is perfect " egg shell," is exquisitely thin and delicate, andf accordingly, it is translucid in a degree that approaches as near to transparency as may be approached in a manufacture that is ceramic and not vitreous. As a matter of course, some of the works constitute a transition between the full development of either of these two varieties ; that is to say, some objects of the former class — as in the case of vases — have more substance than others ; while, in the latter class, the tenuity of the fabric is greater in some objects than in others. Of the Danish Porcelain Vases in the Bond Street Galleries, it is sufficient to state that they include many varieties of size, form, and artistic decoration, in which the same high standard of both Art and Manufacture has been successfully maintained. These vases are necessarily available only as ornamental accessories of richly-furnished rooms. The Danish Porcelain, in which provision is made for actual use, requires I20 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. more minute consideration. The objects of this class in the Danish Galleries are qualified in an eminent degree to render good service in accomplishing that training and refining process by which alone public taste and feeling can become qualified duly to appreciate and to estimate aright the noblest achievements of Art. Such qualifications, to be genuine in themselves and also to become so widely difi"used that they may impart a tone to the national mind and character, require to be derived from an habitual familiarity with the presence of true Art in common and little things. Artistic instincts are matured and sometimes even inspired, as artistic tastes and sympathies are cultivated and strengthened, not by occasional and exceptional glimpses of Art in a condition of full and most exalted manifestation, but by her constant and ever cherished companionship. The unrivalled glories of the mediaeval cathedrals were attained, not because the great Masters of Gothic Art breathed in a more exalted atmosphere of Art than their fellowmen, but on the contrary, because of their loving regard for little things ; because, for example, they considered their humblest door-hinges and key-plates in their degree to be no less worthy of their thoughtful care, than their richest traceries and their loftiest spires. And, in like manner, the antique grandeur of the sculpture of Pheidias was the culminating point of a system in which even the simplest earthen vessels were endowed with exquisite gracefulness and harmonious proportion of form. In our own days we need to pursue the very same system, which may lead us upwards from true Art in the least things, to true Art in the greatest things. But too long and too generally it has been our own habit to reverse such a system as this, by aspiring to be connoisseurs and lovers of Art in very great things, and then, perhaps, thinking that we might be induced to condescend to associate Art with comparatively little things, — judges and critics of noble architecture, noble sculpture, and noble paintings, — and yet content to live encompassed by tawdry or insipid wall- papers, in the midst of wretchedly tasteless or meretriciously untasteful furniture, and every day of our lives using plates, and cups and saucers such as no long-forgotten Etruscan (to say nothing of an archaic Greek) could Danish Porcelain. 121 have tolerated for a moment, or, indeed, could have been guilty of producing. In one of not the least important of the requirements of every-day life, one also which is calculated to exercise a powerful, though silent, influence upon the taste and the feeling for Art, Danish Porcelain provides precisely what both Greek and Etruscan would joyfully have welcomed ; and, consequently, Danish Porcelain is more than justified in anticipating at least as cordial a welcome here in our England from ourselves. Whatever its class, or the special object of its production, the Porcelain of Denmark is invariably formed from a fine and firm paste, composed of the purest materials ; it therefore always is genuine porcelain of a high order. And in the Royal Manufactory at Copenhagen, manufacture with the best material is invariably allied with adornment by the best Art. I have most carefully examined every class of work in porcelain produced from this establishment, and the conclusion at which I have arrived is that, without hesitation, I can declare its name to be a guarantee for excellence that seldom is equalled and never surpassed. The painting rises far above what is under- stood by decorative Art ; it is true Art, worthily expressing its conceptions upon delicate porcelain. It may here be stated, that all the services manu- factured in this porcelain, whatever may be their particular use, are always complete in all the various pieces that constitute any and every such service ; also in the breakfast and tea services the pieces are made in three, or some- times in four, gradations of size. The variety which first claims attention, as the " National Danish Porce- lain," par excellence, has a delicate running design of a floral character executed in blue and in very low relief upon a white ground, the ground itself being slightly fluted by a method of treatment exclusively its own. The effect is excellent; pleasing at first sight, and its pleasureable aspect improves with a growing familiarity. This porcelain is manufactured in dinner, dessert, breakfast, and tea services ; and in substance the pieces vary from the slightest and most translucent "egg shell," to such comparatively substantial fabrics as are qualified to endure constant use. The next variety, Q 122 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. produced under precisely the same conditions, may be distinguished as " Danish Dresden." In this porcelain, in the forms, in the decorative subjects, and in the style of colouring, the ceramists of Copenhagen follow the guidance of their Saxon brethren, and on Danish soil execute such objects as the manufacturers and artists of Meisen are in the habit of executing for the fair city of Dresden. The varieties which follow do not include dinner services. Alike in delicacy of fabric and in the graceful pui-ity of their forms, these varieties are distinguished by the style and character of their ornamentation. All have a white or a pale buff ground, lightly and effectively touched, where . any such touch is desirable, with rich gold. One variety, the " Medallion," as its title implies, on gold-encircled medallions of rich maroon or blue, has compositions from Thorvaldsen admirably painted with the effect of cameos sculptured in relief In another variety, somewhat larger medallions enclose painted landscapes and views of buildings such as are well known in Denmark. Flowers are painted with true floral feeling and grace on the white ground of another variety ; each of these flowers, with its appropriate leafage, is a faithful study from Nature, as it also is an artistic gem. A fourth variety is enriched with the figures of birds, and butterflies take the place of the birds in a fifth variety ; in both, birds and butterflies are accompanied with appropriate sprays of flowers and leaves. These singularly beautiful services require not only to be seen and examined, but to be seen and examined in close comparison with other high-class works of their own order, that their rare excellence may be duly appreciated. I take a cup with an eagle painted on it — the piece that chances to be nearest to me — and I ask a keen connoisseur to look at the form, the plumage, the pose and action, and expression of the bird, and particularly to observe the manner in which the artist has represented the legs and the feet with their claws ; and his glance in reply to me satisfies me that he had not often, if ever, before discovered painting such as this upon porcelain-cups. Then there is the extinguisher of the toilette-set, with that wise and arch owl saying " Good night ! " — and in a whole row of extinguishers always an owl, and the owl is always wise and arch, and says Danish Porcelain. 123 "Good night!" — but there are no two of those owls that in attitude are alike. Cupids, painted with exquisite lightness, each figure full of life, and every face radiant with characteristic and yet ever varied expression — like so many fine miniatures on ivory — float and flutter about the polished surfaces of the specially translucent " egg shell " cups and other pieces, in a fifth variety of this porcelain. Yet another variety is devoted to the quaintly grotesque forms of the "Nisser," the dwarf elves of Scandinavian mythology, with their rich humour and all their versatile satire upon the weaknesses and the foibles of human life (Plate VI.). Sometimes a single picture in this series is complete in itself, and tells the whole of its own tale ; at other times, the successive incidents which constitute a single tale are represented in a series of pictures. Thus there is a dwarf smith, his face well begrimed, at work at his forge ; there is a band of musicians, each instrumentalist, with his enormous instrument, a distinct picture, yet all forming a single group ; there is a greedy dwarf about to indulge in appropriating the contents of a large jar of honey, just as a bee of goodly size announces its buzzing approach ; then the dwarf has risen, and having beaten down the enemy with his cap, is about to crush it beneath his foot, when another bee of portentous proportions comes to the rescue and settles, decidedly in earnest, upon the dwarf's un- protected bald head. Again, a large-headed elf is rivalling (and in his own estimation, evidently' rivalling with success) the musicians, by playing on a pair of bellows with the tongs ; another is an artist (No. 68), who, with conscious dignity, gravely paints the portrait of a dog, in his way as grave and dignified a " sitter ; " many are the adventures of other dwarfs with dogs ; nor do they fail to exemplify the indulgences of smokers, or such mishaps as may chance to befall them. A distinct variety of the porcelain that claims especial notice, forms a decided exception to its companions ; it is rightly entitled " Pompeian," from the character of its beautifully executed and effective ornamentation : and again, the " Egyptian " porcelain has figures in black and red painted upon a red buff" ground. Last in this diversified collection, but by no means least in intrinsic worthiness, is a service of plain cream-white " egg shell," 124 -^^i^ ^"^ Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. with narrow gold rims and edges to each piece, which practically realises the untranslateable "simplex munditiis" of the Roman poet. Danish Biscuit is distinguished from the fine, hard, white ceramic substance produced in other countries, and bearing the same generic name, rather by the uses to which it is applied, than by marked peculiarities in the fabric itself. It is only doing justice to the Danish Biscuit, however, to record its excellent effectiveness when moulded into statuettes and bas-relief medallions, which it produces with admirable sharpness and no less pleasing tenderness of line, and with a rich and cream-like softness of surface. The manufacture of Biscuit in Denmark receives a constant and powerful stimulus from the sculpturesque feeling generally prevalent among Danish artists, and the delight in the reproduction of sculpture and bas-relief in statuettes and medallions which is so widely spread and so deeply engrafted in the Danish people. That ever-popular and inexhaustible national treasury of Art, also, the Thorvaldsen Museum, perpetually suggests the fresh repetition of the works of the great sculptor of Denmark through the medium of Biscuit ; and this same suggestion, never failing to meet a cordial response, necessarily is in itself a power which alone would keep in a condition of energetic vitality the production of Thorvaldsen statuary in this beautiful material on a small scale. It may be rightly added that the constantly increasing demand in England for their beautiful works of high Art, is felt by the Biscuit-makers at Copenhagen to be to them at once a strong encouragement and a truly gratifying recompense. In the Royal Danish Galleries in London the statuettes and medallions after Thorvaldsen include in their numbers a large proportion of the favourite works of the master ; and in the greater number of instances they give reproductions from him on at least two gradations of diminished scale, the smaller figures and medallions being decidedly small, and yet most true in their fidelity of representation, and executed with the same care and feeling that are bestowed upon the larger series. Of all these beautiful works it may indeed be truly said, that genuine works of Art themselves, they carry Danish Statuettes and Medallions in Bisaiit. 125 with them the very image of the art of the sculptors whose statues and bas-reliefs they represent The Thorvaldsen collection of statuettes includes the entire series of the sculptor's Christ and Twelve Apostles, with the John the Baptist, and the beautiful Angel of Baptism; also the Jason, Mercury, Apollo, Cupid triumpliant, Venus^ Graces, Hebe, Psyclie, Cupid and Psyche, Cupid playing on the lyre, Cupid riding on a lion, and also on a Swan, Cupid with his bow, Cupid atui Bacchus, Adonis, Vulcan, and Ganymede with an eagle ; to which may be added statuettes of Ttwrvaldsen himself, of Christian IV., Lord Byron, a Sheplwrd Boy and a Dancing Girl. The Thorvaldsen bas-reliefs in Biscuit are the Virgin with tlie Infant Christ and Saint John, Baptism of Christ, Christ blessing Children, Christ at Emmaus, and Christmas Joys; also the Ages of Love, Nest of Loves, Four Seasons, Cupid and Hymen, Cupid awakening Psyche, Cupid making his net, Cupid ami Ganymede, Graces, Cupid caressing a dog. Genius of Architecture, Genius of Sculpture, Genius of Painting, with many others. The famous medallions, Dawn and NigJtt, are modelled in several sizes, the largest being decidedly large, and the smallest no less decidedly small. The reproductions in Biscuit after BiSSEN and JERICHAU at present are only few in number ; and it is greatly to be desired that additional statuettes from the works of both these great sculptors should be added to the collections already in Bond Street, especially reproductions from the Scandinavian statues of the former master. The companion statuette to the Valkyrie {see page 9), is Bissen's Cupid sharpening his arrows, a work no less attractive than the charming Valkyrie herself, in which the sharpener — if the expression of his countenance has any significance — declares himself to be satisfied that the sharpened is likely to become quite sharp enough to inflict such a wound as all liis victims are destined to receive. 124 ^r^J and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. with narrow gold rims and edges to each piece, which practically realises the untranslateable "simplex munditiis" of the Roman poet. Danish Biscuit is distinguished from the fine, hard, white ceramic substance produced in other countries, and bearing the same generic name, rather by the uses to which it is applied, than by marked peculiarities in the fabric itself. It is only doing justice to the Danish Biscuit, however, to record its excellent effectiveness when moulded into statuettes and bas-relief medallions, which it produces with admirable sharpness and no less pleasing tenderness of line, and with a rich and cream-like softness of surface. The manufacture of Biscuit in Denmark receives a constant and powerful stimulus from the sculpturesque feeling generally prevalent among Danish artists, and the delight in the reproduction of sculpture and bas-relief in statuettes and medallions which is so widely spread and so deeply engrafted in the Danish people. That ever-popular and inexhaustible national treasury of Art, also, the Thorvaldsen Museum, perpetually suggests the fresh repetition of the works of the great sculptor of Denmark through the medium of Biscuit ; and this same suggestion, never failing to meet a cordial response, necessarily is in itself a power which alone would keep in a condition of energetic vitality the production of Thorvaldsen statuary in this beautiful material on a smaU scale. It may be rightly added that the constantly increasing demand in England for their beautiful works of high Art, is felt by the Biscuit-makers at Copenhagen to be to them at once a strong encouragement and a truly gratifying recompense. In the Royal Danish Galleries in London the statuettes and medallions after Thorvaldsen include in their numbers a large proportion of the favourite works of the master ; and in the greater number of instances they give reproductions from him on at least two gradations of diminished scale, the smaller figures and medallions being decidedly small, and yet most true in their fidelity of representation, and executed with the same care and feeling that are bestowed upon the larger series. Of all these beautiful works it may indeed be truly said, that genuine works of Art themselves, they carry Danish Statuettes and Medallions in Bisaiit. 125 with them the very image of the art of the sculptors whose statues and bas-rehcfs they represent The Thorvaldsen collection of statuettes includes the entire series of the sculptor's Christ and Twelve Apostles, with the John the Baptist, and the beautiful Angel of Baptism; also the Jason, Mercury, Apollo, Cupid triumpliant, Venus, ' Graces, Hebe, Psyclie, Cupid and Psyche, Cupid playing on the lyre, Cupid riding on a lion, and also on a Swan, Cupid with his bow, Cupid atul Bacchus, Adonis, Vulcan, and Ganymede with an eagle ; to which may be added statuettes of Tfwrvaldsen himself, of Christian IV., Lord Byron, a Shep/ierd Boy and a Dancing Girl. The Thorvaldsen bas-reliefs in Biscuit are the Virgin with tlie Infant Christ atid Saint John, Baptism of Christ, Christ blessing Children, Christ at Emmaus, and Christmas Joys; also tlie Ages of Love, Nest of Loves, Four Seasons, Cupid and Hymen, Cupid awakening Psyche, Cupid making his net, Cupid and Ganymede, Graces, Cupid caressing a dog. Genius of Architecture, Genius of Sculpture, Genius of Painting, with many others. The famous medallions, Dawn and Night, are modelled in several sizes, the largest being decidedly large, and the smallest no less decidedly small. The reproductions in Biscuit after BiSSEN and JERICHAU at present are only few in number ; and it is greatly to be desired that additional statuettes from the works of both these great sculptors should be added to the collections already in Bond Street, especially reproductions from the Scandinavian statues of the former master. The companion statuette to the Valkyrie {see page 9), is Bissen's Cupid sharpening his arrows, a work no less attractive than the charming Valkyrie herself, in which the sharpener — if the expression of his countenance has any significance — declares himself to be satisfied that the sharpened is likely to become quite sharp enough to inflict such a wound as all his victims are destined to receive. — Hj©^a&%«ainted in Enamel. biscuit, or fayence. I myself, well remember, indeed, the half incredulous and half indignant exclamation that greeted a statement of my own concerning the preciousness and the consequent high money value of certain cups and saucers of porcelain, that some few years ago formed parts of the loan-collections then exhibited in the " Ceramic Court " of the Crystal Palace. I was told — and it was quite true — that for the money which I said had been actually paid for one of those cups and saucers, " things that would break into mere fragments if dropped from the hand upon the floor," at least two cups and two saucers of the same size might be obtained, manufactured in solid gold. It was not an easy matter to convince my remonstrating friend that Art was a potent alchemyst, able to transmute S 138 Paintings in Enamel by French Artists. mere "things" of clay into objects endowed with a preciousness surpassing that of gold itself And after all, porcelain and fayence may dispute the point concerning fragility with both the canvas and the panel on which painters work, and which, under the magic touch of some painters assume a value corresponding with that of certain small, rare, and very fragile paper- documents which occasionally issue from a well-known institution in Threadneedle Street. Pictures on canvas, on panel, and on porcelain or fayence are alike in relying upon consistent care for their durability, pictures in enamel possessing the extremely important quality of being indestructible, except under circumstances to which it is scarcely possible that they should be exposed. I may add — and, I think, I am bound to add, in connection with the suggestions that have been made for their introduction into furniture — that the pictures in enamel that have been under consideration, admirable as they are, at present are obtainable at a truly moderate cost. The Royal Danish Gallery, in which the Leonce and Mallet collections are exhibited, also contains a few plaques admirably painted in enamel in other styles by other artists. Some of these plaques display reproductions of well- known pictures by Rubens. Four wood cuts, Nos. y^, 78, 79, and 80, illustrative of the subjects of as many choice examples of these miscellaneous plaques, have secured for themselves places in this chapter. No. 80.— Plaque Painted in Enamel, after a Bacchanalian group, by Rubens. Conclusion. 1 39 RovAL Armorial Shield of Denmark. CHAPTER VII. CONCLUSION. AM bound to assert," wrote GOETHE, "that the 'Beautiful' consists when we contemplate the ' Living ' in its normal state, and in its highest activity and perfection ; by which act we feel ourselves impelled in a lively manner to the reproduction of the same, and also placed simultaneously in a state of the highest activity ourselves." The sentiment conveyed in these words of the great German poet-philosopher may be con- sidered to admit of a twofold application. For as Life, the source and fountain-head of Art, imparts that inspiring and animating impulse which makes men artists, so, in like manner, the creations of Art are endowed with powers specially qualified to guide, to stimulate, and to encourage artists in their career. Art, indeed, resembles Literature, in providing rich treasures for her own professors ; while, at the same time, she confirms this resemblance, by inviting mankind at large to participate freely in every benefit and in all the happiness that may be derived from her achievements. In the foregoing pages I have had occasion to notice the potent influence exercised with such happy results by the existing remains of the great Sculptors of Classic Antiquity upon the minds, and consequently upon the lives as artists, of such men as Thorvaldsen and Bissen, and others eminent HO Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. in the world of Art in our own times. And it also has been my pleasant task, in strong and warm terms, to speak of certain collections of works of Art and of Artistic Manufactures, produced for the most part by natives of Denmark, the continental country with which our own England is specially connected in so close and cordial an alliance. After a careful study of them, I have spoken of these Danish collections, as I firmly believe, in strict accordance with their merits. If, however, any persons who may chance to read my written words should be disposed to consider them to be too strong and somewhat excessive in their warmth, such persons I refer to the actual Danish works, being quite content to leave it with those works to vindicate for themselves the justice of what I have advanced on their behalf But however agreeable and gratifying such an object must have been, in preparing this volume it has been my aim to accomplish more than merely to secure for the Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark both a consistent recog- nition and a hearty welcome in England. I desire my own fellow-countrymen to become familiarised with the productions of the artists and artistic manu- facturers of Denmark, with a special view to what may be learned from them. The admirable artists of Belgium need no advocate among us ; nor can either the artists or the artistic manufacturers of France well feel in any degree dissatisfied with the estimation in which they are held, and the treatment which they experience in this country. In these respects the claims of Denmark upon us are at least as strong. We may feel a pride and a delight in seeing what Danish Art produces, and in becoming possessors of her productions. In these same productions also, we may find very much for ourselves to study as well as to admire — to study for our own very decided advantage. It is not only from the public in this country, accordingly, that I seek for Denmark that particular form of sympathy which is expressed in the relations between producers and purchasers ; but I appeal, moreover, to English producers to extend to the productions of their Danish fellow-workers a welcome no less cordial, though not expressed precisely in the same manner. For the Arts and the Artistic Manufactures of Denmark, I am sincerely desirous Conclusion. 141 to aid in winning from the public in England the most favourable reception and regard. This is not merely because they are Danish, but because, being Danish, their intrinsic merits are of a very high order. For precisely the same reasons, I extend my appeal from the public to the artists and artistic manufacturers of England. I do not say to them — " These Danes are our friends ; will you not hold out to them the right hand of friendship } " But what I say is this, — "Our friends, these artists and artistic manufacturers of Denmark, are men of excellent genius and rare ability ; and their works are eminently and in an especial manner worthy to be studied by us, and that we should compare them with our own, and that we should give them a place of honour in the ranks of our friendly guides and instructors ; let us, therefore, regard them, and receive them, and in every respect treat them as friends, whom it well becomes us to delight in honouring." In the General Introductory Essay, which it was my privilege to write in the most important and most widely-circulated work that was published in connection with the Paris Universal Exhibition of the year 1867, I submitted " Rivalry, without Hostility," as a definition at once concise and significant of the principle of all International Exhibitions. For, by those same three words is set forth the true motive for human action; and, in the sentiment which they convey may be discerned the existence of a power capable of exercising a most beneficial influence upon human life. When now advocating the study here in England of Danish works of more than one high class, and urging a comparison between them and corresponding productions of my own fellow-countrymen, I prefer these three words, " Rivalry, with Frietidship" to denote the principle which should govern this study and comparison. ' That aspiring element in the mind of man which instinctively urges him 'A«£i» aftiOTiviiv Kot iTn{po\ov tfifjiivai aXXctiv — " Ever to press on To name and fame, and highest excellence," implies the existence and operation of the spirit of rivalry as a condition 142 Aris and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. of his being. Every man, in his own strife and struggle to attain superiority, constitutes himself a rival of his fellows ; and all men are conscious that in every other man they may see a competitor in the common conflict in which they all alike are engaged. But this universal rivalry possesses a twofold nature. As it may become essentially hostile, so also it may continue to be not only without hostility, but maintained on terms of cordial reciprocal friendship. The aim and the purpose, indeed, remain ever the same. There always exists the very same impulse, far stronger certainly in some men than in others, — an impulse of spontaneous growth, prompting and pressing men on towards self-exaltation. In the one case, however, the desired achieve- ment is sought, perhaps altogether, certainly in no inconsiderable degree, through the oppression and degradation of rivals ; and thus a more eminent superiority elevates the successful competitor, by means of what he may have made his own at the cost and through the loss of others. Very different, as only noble, is the other case, in which the aspirant to a lofty excellence seeks to stand higher, simply by rising higher : he delights to see others rising with him, in their successes discerning fresh motives and more urgent stimulants for renewed vigour in his own exertions ; and, without relaxing for a single moment his efforts to surpass those around him, this man, while ever seeking to learn from his rivals what may aid him in his own advance, cordially encourages and generously aids them on their onward way, cheerfully rejoicing should they chance to attain to a position beside himself, or even above himself The fine rivalry which not only permits but constrains rivals thus to regard and to deal with one another as true friends, rarely can fail to lead men on to excel (or, at any rate, earnestly to seek to excel) in those things that in themselves are excellent. The lofty spirit of such rivalry can be thoroughly congenial only with what is akin to its own nature — it necessarily rejects and repudiates objects and pursuits that are base though they may be specious, and which may possibly appear attractive or even dazzling, and yet, in reality, are unworthy and ignominious. A truly friendly rivalry, again, which naturally inclines and as naturally attracts all within its Conclusion. 143 influence to whatever is worthy and of intrinsic excellence, in the very act of exalting themselves teaches men both to advance the general interests of others and to promote the personal exaltation of particular individuals. The beneficial influences thus brought into operation, ever acting reciprocally, continually receive fresh strength as they prove to be regularly productive of greater and more important mutual advantages. Hence is produced a system of combined action, growing out of individual efi"ort and built up by a concentration of strength — a system bcised on a mutual ready recognition, by diff"erent persons and different races, of whatever qualities or faculties in each other may be pre-eminent in excellence, in strict alliance with that noblest ambition which aims at a perpetual advance to be accomplished by the con- current onward movement of the friendly competitor. A system such as this, in which aid and encouragement are both sought and given, sought without hesitation and given without reserve, cherishes the emulous spirit in its happiest mood, and stimulates to the utmost its inherent energy. It must be borne in mind, that the friendly rivalry which may be productive of so much good under various forms and in more than one direction, in a very great degree must be dependent upon the two conditions of Exhibition and Comparison. Men must bring together, and must show to one another, what they severally are competent to accomplish ; and they must submit to each other's candid judgment their various works, with all their highest perfections, and all their unavoidable shortcomings ; so that thus, through a comprehensive, open, and searching Comparison between the visible exponents of their existing capacities placed side by side, fellow-workers may not only learn to form a correct estimate of their own deficiencies, and duly to appreciate each other's achieve- ments, but they all may seek from supreme excellence those precious lessons which supreme excellence always is both able and willing to impart. In this Volume, which I now close, I have striven to show the Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark, comparatively but little known, and certainly by no means adequately appreciated in this country, to be endowed with qualities and attributes which assign to them a high position in the 144 Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark. order of merit and dignity. In consequence of their enjoying a rank and a reputation such as this, let us unite in cordially encouraging the presence of Danish works of Art and Danish Artistic Manufactures among us ; so that, knowing them far better, and appreciating them more worthily, we may understand of how great value and importance to ourselves may be a competitive rivalry, conducted in a truly generous spirit of brotherly friend- liness, between the Arts and the Artistic Manufactures of Denmark and those of our own Art-cherishing and Manufacture-producing England. ' Danneiikog." INDEX. Aboriginal Celts, 5. Aborigines of Denmark, 5 ; of Umbria, 94. Academy, of Bologna, 18 ; of Copen- hagen, 17, 18, 38, 41, 49; Royal, of England, 52, 112; of Vienna, 18. Achilles, 23, 32, 55, 36, 37, 40, 66, 89, 90. Adonis, 32, 125. Adoration of Magi, 39. ^neas, 66, 88. Ages of Love, 32, 104, 116, 125. Alberto, Signor, 16, 24. Alcestis, 41. Alder Trees, 6. Alexander, the Emperor, 18. Alexander, Triumph of, 36, 37. Alfader, Title of Odin, 9. Alfred the Great, 82. Amac Girl, 47. Amphora, 100 — 104. Amymone, 41. Anacreon, 26, 32, 36, 66. Anchises, 89. Ancient Jewellers, 85. Ancient Potters, 93. Andersen, A., 59, 60. Andersen, Hans C, 6, 20, 27, 63. Andromache, 36, 41. Andromeda, 40. Angel, 68. Angel of Baptistry, 28, 30, 106, 125. Anglo-Saxon Art, 7, 86, 88. Antiope, 41. Antiquaries, British, 7. Antique, The, 23, 89. Antique Gems, 89. Antique Sculpture, 17. Antiquities, Danish and English, 6, 7, 67, 68. Apollo, 32, 35, 38, 40, 125. Apostles, Statues of, 28, 125. Appennines, 95. Archaeology, 3, 4, 67, 69, 70. Archaeological Jewellery, 87 ; Journal, 68 ; Researches, 93, 99. Architectural Accessories, 115. Architecture, Genius of, 125. Art, Anglo-Saxon, 7, 86, 88 ; Antique, 17. 23, 25, 39, 85, 88, 89, 94, 96; Byzantine, 82, 83, 86; Ceramic, 97, 121 ; in Common Things, 120 ; Danish, 6, 7, 39, 68, 8y ; Decorative, 121; Early Christian, 86 ; Egyptian, 87, 95 ; English, 87 ; Etruscan, 95, 97, 98, 99, 120 ; and Genius, 14, 18, 32 ; in Gold, 86, 88; Gothic, 120; Greco- 146 Index. A rt — continued. Phoenician, 7 ; Greek, 23, 25, 39, 69, 70, 85, 86, 87, 89, 96 — 99, 102 ; In- fluence of on Artists, 4, 140; Italian, 87 ; Italo-Greek, 96, 97 ; of Lapidary, 88; and Manufacture,, i, 119, 121 ; and Nature, 2, 122 ; Pelasgic, 95 ; Phoenician, 95 — 97 ; Pompeian, 86 ; Renaissance, 70 ; Revival of, 99 ; Roman, 70, 86 ; Scandinavian, 70, 79. 87 ; Trojan, 89 ; Western, 86. Art Journal, 129 — 131. Ashburton, Lord, 30. Ash Tree, The Sacred, 8. Asia Minor, 94. Asir, The, 10, 12. Atalanta, 40. Atlienceum, The, 52. Athens, 60. Atli, 12. Autumn (Bas-relief), 36, 102. Awful Story, The, 64. B. Baagoe, Carl, 57. Bacchus, 32, 33, 35, 36, 125. Balder, 11. Baptist, John the. Statue of, 28, 125. Baptistry, Angel of, 28, 30, 106, 125. Baring, Mr. A., 30. Bartolozzi, 104. Bathers Surprised, 42, 43. Bathing Children, 6T). Bay of Biscay, 54. Bay of Naples, 61. Bedford, Duke of, 16. Beech Trees, 5. Bentley, Messrs., 16. Bergen, 51. Berlin, 18, 19, 81. Bertel Thorvaldsen, 16, 17, 24. Bertolini, 23. Bille, Carl, 53—55. Biscuit, 124 — 127. Bissen, his Birth, Parentage, Early Character and Taste, Love of Painting, and Career as Artist, 38 ; Pupil of Thorvaldsen, 10, 39, 62 ; his Valkyrie, 9, 10 ; his Works, 10, 12, 38 — 40, 93, 104 ; completes Thorvaldsen's Works, 33, 40 ; Statues for Palace of Chris- tiansborg, 41 ; Statuettes from his Works, 9, 104, 125 ; influence of Classic Art on him, 39, 140. Blache, C, 61. Black Nurse, 63. Bloch, Carl, 60. Bogh, C, 61, 64. Bologna, 18. Bonheur, Rosa, 62. Borgen, The Messrs., 129, 130. Borghese Villa, 61. Bracelets, 73. Brage, 1 1. Brighton Sands, 64. Briseis, 22, 89, 104. Britain, tj. Brok, 13. Bronze, 5 ; Jewellery, 67. Brooches, 13, 71, 75, JJ, 81. Brynhyld, 11, 12, 41. Byfrost, 10. Byron, Lord, Statue of, 32, 125. Byzantine Art, 86. Byzantium, 6, 82. Index. H7 Calm Evening, 54. Calm Sea Scene, 59. Calypso and Ulysses, 45. Canova, 17, 18, 22, 23. Canute the Great, 82. Cape of Good Hope, 117. Castellani, The Signori, 69, 70, 84, 85, 89. Castle of Elsinore, 54, 58 ; of Frederiks- borg, 26, 61 ; of Heidelberg, 61 ; of Kronsborg, 54, 58. Cat, 61. Cattegat, The, 50, 54, 56. Cavendish, the Traveller, 117. Cellini, Benvenuto, 86. Celts, The, 5, 94, 95. Ceramists, 92, 98, loi, 103, 104, 105, 1 17 122. Ceramic Court, 137. Ceres, 40. Charlottenborg Palace, 18, 19, 20. Chatsworth, 22, 32. Childhood, 36. Children in the Wood, 64. China and the Chinese, 116 — 118. Chinese Porcelain, 117. Christ, Statue of, 28, 125 ; Bas-reliefs of incidents in His Life, 28, 125 ; blessing little Children, 39 ; washing Apostles' Feet, 39. Christian Charity, 28. Christianity introduced into Denmark, 5. Christian IV., 125. Christian V., 82. Christian VHI., 38. Christian IX., H.M., 13. Christiansborg, Palace of, 40. Christmas Joys, 125. Chronicon Erici, 82. Civilisation, 5, 6, 65, 68, 69. Classic Art and Feeling, 40. Constable, 127. Continental Schools, Exhibitions of, 1 5. Conture, 62. Copenhagen, 17—20, 24, 38, 41, 49, 63, 79, 92, 99, 106, IIS, "8, 119, 121, 124. Cornelius, 47, 62. Creation of Eve, 42. Creusa, 89. Cross of Dagmar, 82, 83 ; of the Danne- brog, I, 26. Crosses, Gold, 71. Crystal Palace, 137. Cumae, 94, 96. Cupid, 32, 104, 106, 125 ; Triumphant, 35, I2S ; and Psyche, 33, 35, 45, 63, 104, 125 ; stung by Bee, 34, 36 ; sharpening his Arrows, 40, 41, 66, 125 ; and Dolphin, 64 ; and Bacchus, 125 ; making Net, 125 ; and Hymen, 125 and Ganymede, 125 ; caressing Dog, 125. Czarewitz, H.I.H. The, 51. Dagmar, 40, 81 — 83. Dagmar Cross, The, 82, 83. Dahlcrup, Captain, 19. Daily News, The, 52. Delacroix — his Hamlet, 133. Dancing Girl, 125. Dane, True, 23, 25, 26, 29. Danes, in early Times, 5, 6j, 80, 95 ; of to-day, 6, 7, 79, 105 ; their Patriotism, 6 ; their Victories, 40. 148 Index. Danish Ancient Mythology, 8, 12, 25^ 41, 69, 93, 109; Antiquities, 6, 7, 67, 68 ; Art and Artists, 6, 7, 13, 15, 38, 39, 46, 63, 67, 68, 124; Biscuit, 124, 125 ; Ceramists, 92, loi, 103, 104, 105, 122; CiviHsation, 6 ; "Dresden," 122; Elves (see Nisser) ; Goldsmiths and Jewellery, 1 3, 65, 70, 79, 80, 87 ; Goths, 5, 88, 122 ; History, 6 ; Knights of the Dannebrog, 27; Landscape, 5, 122; Manufactures, 6, 7, 79 ; Man-of-war at Sea, 58 ; Marine Painters, 46, 48, 61 ; " National Porcelain," 121; Painters and Pictures, 46, 48, 61 ; Painters in Water Colours, 61 ; Patriotism, 6; Peasantry, 12,93, 104; Porcelain, iii, 112, 118, 119, 121 — 124; Sculptors, 15, 38, 41, 45 ; Soldier, Bissen's Statue of, 40 ; Terra Cotta, 91 — 93, 98, 100 ; Vases, 99 — 105 ; Victories, 40. Danish, Royal Galleries in London, i, 8, 13, 15, 41, 46—49. 52, 56, 60, 64, 79, 93, 99, 100, loi, 104, 106, IIS, "9, 120, 124, 126, 127. Dannebod, 82. Dannebrog, Order and Cross of the, i, 18, 26. Daughter of Jairus (bas-relief), 39. Dawn, or Morning, 22, 32, 104, 106, 114, 125. Delaunay, M. Jules, 63. Denmark, Aborigines of, 5 ; Archaeo- logical Jewellery of, 79 ; Goths in, 5, 88 ; Introduction of Christianity to, 5 ; "Iron Period" in, 6^ ; Kings of, 13, 18, 19, 20, 26, 40, 41 ; honours Thor- valdsen, 19, 20, 2$ ; Manufacturers of, 105, 121 ; Merchants and Bankers of. 63 ; Nationality, 80 ; Northernmost point of, 56 ; Prince Royal of, 20, 38 ; Queens of, 40, 8 1 ; Relics of early Art in, 6^, 104 ; Romans did not conquer it, 6^ ; Scandinavian kingdom, 5 ; Sepulchral deposits in, 105 ; its Terra Cotta clay, 92 ; Thorvaldsen's return to, 18, 19. Denmark, H.M. The King of, 13. De Stael, Madame, 29. Devonshire, Duke and Duchess of, 16, 22, 31, 32. Dibutades, 98. Dido, 48, 88, 89. Djebel Musa, 53. Dogs, 64. " Dolce far niente," 47. Dore, Gustave, 62, 133. Drachmann, H., 61. Dresden, 18, 19, 122. ' Drifting on rocks, 52. Dusseldorf, 62. Dwarfs, 12, 79. Dwarf Elves (see Nisser). Early Christian Art, 86. Early Morning, 50. Echo, 63. Eckersberg, 62. Eckhardt, C, 61. Eddystone Lighthouse, 52. Edinburgh, 52. Edward the Elder, 82. "Egg Shell" Porcelain, 119, 121, 123. Egyptian Art, 87, loi, 102, 123. Electra, 41. Index. 149 Elizabeth, Queen, ()T. Elks, 61. Elsinore, 54, 58. Enamel Painting, 127, 131, 132. England, 15, 22, 29, 51, 79, 86—88, 92, 98, los, 117, 121, 124, 131. English Art, Z^ ; East India Company, 117. English Corvette, 58; Goldsmiths, 86, 87 ; Terra Cotta, 92. Engsten Alp, 61. Entrance to the Sound, 58. Eric IX., 40. Esculapius, 32, 40. Etruscans, 93 — 98, 1 00. Etruscan Confederation, 95, 96 ; Vases, 93, 97- Europe, 117. Eve, Creation of, 42 ; Mother, 63. Fabius, 96. Fafnir, 11. Fairy, 64 ; Small, 64. Fairyland, 64. Fayence, 126, 127. Feluccas, 53, 58. First-born, The, 61. Fjeldskov, 46. Flamborough Head, 51. Flaxman, 23, 91, 98, 103, 106. Flensbourg, 40. Florence, 19, 86. Flower Stands, Vases, and Pots, 1 14. Forest, with Deer, 61 ; with Lake, 59. Foundling, The, 47. Four Elements, The, 32. Fox, 61. France, 131. Frankfort, 19. Fredericia, 40. " Frederick VI.," The, 20. Fredericksborg, Castle of, 26, 61. Freia, 9. French Gallery in London, 14. French Ceramists, 118 ; Painters, 126. Freund, Professor, 38, 39. Frigga, 9, II. Fristrup, P., 61. Frolich, Professor Lorenz, 61 — 64. Frue Kirke, 20, 28, 30. Fruit-piece, 61. Furniture, Decoration of, 106, 136. G. Ganymede and Eagle, 30, 125. Garibaldi, 61. Garter, Knights of the, 26. Gaul, 6t. Gems, Antique, 66, 89, 92. Geneva, 19. Genius and Art, 14, 18, 32, 106. Genius of Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting, 125. Germany, 38. Giaki, 11. Goats, 61. Goethe, 140. Gold, 5 ; Art in, m, 69, 79, 80, 86, 88 ; Gothic Art in, 86 ; Relics, 7, 67.J Goldsmith, Sir F., 42. Goldsmiths, Ancient, 69, 70, 89 ; Ar- chaeological, 84 ; Danish, 79, 80, 87 ; English, 86, 87 ; Greek, 85—89; Italo- Greek, 85, 88, 89 ; Modern, 85 ; Scan- dinavian, 70, 80 ; Trojan, 89. ISO Index. Good Hope Fiord, 56. Gorm III., 82. Gothic Art, 86, 120. Goths, 95 ; Danish and Scandinavian, 5, 88. Graces, The, 33, 36, 66, 125. Gram, 11. Great Exhibition of 185 1, 14; of Paris in 1867, 45, 140. Grecia Magna, 70. Greece, 94, 95. Greek Art, 17, 23, 25, 39, 69, 70, 85— 89. 95. 96, 98, 99 ; Cemeteries, 69, 93, 94; Ceramists, 98 ; Goldsmiths, 85 — 89 ; Jewellery, 85 ; Mythology and Myths, 8, 25, 40, 89, 96 ; Picture, 89 ; Sculptors, 23, 24, 89 ; Terra Cotta, 92 ; Vases, 29, 97, 98. Greeks, 97, 98. Groth v., 59. Gudrun, 11, 12, 41. Guignet, 133. Gunrrar, 11, 12. H. Hammer, H. J., 61 ; W., 61. Hay-barge of Thames, 51. Hebe, 9, 10, 30, 104, 106, 125 ; and Hercules, 41. Hector and Andromache, 36, 104 ; with Paris and Helen, 36. Heidelberg, Castle of, 61. Heindal, 10. Hela, II. Helen, Paris, and Hector, 36. Helheim, 11. Hellas, 94, 96. Helvetia, 94. Hen and Chickens, 61. Hench, Madlle., 48. Henry IV., 40. Henry VII., 117. Hephaestos, 66. Hercules, 32, 34, 41. Hermod, 11. Hemes, 89. Hero and Leander, 6'>,. Herodotus, 65, 98. Hesitation, 63. Hjalmar, 41. Hjornis, II. Homeless, 47. Homer, and Homeric Subjects, 26, 40, 98. Hope, Statue of, 106, 108. Hope, Mr. T., 15, 18, 29, 30, 32. Horses, 64. Hudur, II. Hydria, 91, 103. Hylas, 36, 40. Hymen and Cupid, 125. Ice Scenes, 60. Iceland, Midnight Sunset at, 58. Idun, 9. Iliad, The, 89. Ilium, 89. Imperial Rome, 70, 88, 96, 99. In de Beton, Madlle., 61. Ingeborg, 14. Ino, Bacchus, and Mercury, 35, 36. Institution of Lord's Supper (Bas-relief) 28. Index. 151 Iron, 65 ; Jewellery, 6"] ; Period, 67. Italian Boy, 46 ; and Girl, 63 ; Potters, 93. Italiote (Settlers in Italy), 94; Greeks, 94, 97. 99 ; Lydians, 95 ; Pelasgi, 94 -^. Italo-Greek Goldsmiths, 85, 88, 89 ; Vases, 93. Italy, 86, 89, 95, 97, 100. Ivy-leaf Jewellery, 84. Japan, 116. Jason, Statue of, 15, I7, 18, 22, 29, 103, 104, 125. Jelling, in Jutland, 82. Jerichau, Madame, 47 ; Professor, 41 — 44, 104, 106, 125. Jetter, 10. Jewellers, Ancient, 85. Jewellery, Danish, 65 ; Fashions in, 87 ; Love of, 87, 88 ; Trojan, 88, 89 {see Gold, and Goldsmiths). John the Baptist, Statue of, 28, 125. Jordan, The, 28. Julius Caesar, 99. Jupiter, 34. K. Kaulbach, 62. Kantharos, 99, icx). Kiel, 19. King, Mr., on Gems, 89, 90. King-te-tchin, 118. Kings of Denmark, 13, 18, 19, 20, 26, 41. Kiorboe, 61. Kornbeck, P., 61. Krater, 99, 100. Kronborg Castle, 54, 58. KuUen, 50, 54. Kylix, 104. Ky nance Cove, 52. Labarte, 127. Labouch^re, Mr., 31. La Cour, 61. Landseer, Sir Edwin, 62. Land's End, 52. Lapidary, Art of, 88. Lavinia, 89. Leghorn, 19. Leipzig, 19. Leith Roads, 52. Lekythos, 99, ICX), 103, 104. L^once, Goutard, 126, 131 — 134. Lepaste, 103, 105. Life among Monks, 60. Lili Frolich, Madlle., 63. Lion and Lioness, 64. Lizard, The, 53. Laessoe, Th., 61. Loke, II. London, i, 14, 79, 115. Longfellow, 55. Lorenzo di Medici, 117. Love, the Ruler, 32 ; Triumphant, 32, 42 ; Ages of, 32, 104, 116, 125. Loves, Nest of, 64, 104, 125. Lucan, Lord, 16, 31. Lucerne, 19. Luther, Bust of, 20. Lydia and Lydians, 94, 95. 152 Index. M. Mallet, Pierre, 131 — 134. Marco Polo, 117. Margaret, Queen, 40, 82, 83. Margate, Old Steps at, 51. Marine Painters, 47 — 54. Marks, Mr., 60. Marlborough Collection of Gems, 99. Marlborough House, 42, 44, 45. Mars, 32, 34, 66. Marseilles, 19. Mature Age (Bas-relief), 36. Mayence, 19. Medallions, 106; Portrait, 112. Mediterranean, The, 59. Meisen, 125. Meissonnier, 60. Melbye, W., 52, 53. Mendelssohn, 27. Mercury, 16, 30, 35, 36, 106, 125. Milan, 19. Milman, Dean, 38. Minerva, 32, 40, (^. Miscellaneous Objects in Terra Cotta, 1 1 3. Mjolnir (Thor's Hammer), 11. MoUer, Emilie Hedvige, 39. Moonlight Marine Pictures, 55, 57. Moorish Feluccas, 58. Morning {see Dawn). Morse, 81. Moses, Statue of, 39. Mother Eve, 63. Munich, 19. Muses, The, 34, 36. Museum, Thorvaldsen, 20, 27, 39, 92, 1 14. Museum at Copenhagen, 79, 81, 82, 107 ; the British, 29. , Mutrie, The Misses, 48. Myron, 98. Mythology, Greek, 8, 25, 40, 69, 89 ; Norse or Scandinavian, 8, 12, 25, 46 63.93. 109— III, 113, 123- N. Nanna, 11, 41. Narcissus, 40. National Gallery, 56. Neapolitan Girl, 47. Necklet, 71, 80. Nemesis, 32, 40. Neptune, Triumph of, 91, 103. Nest of Loves, 64, 104, 125. Neumann, Carl, 53, 55. Nielsen, A., 61. Niflheim,-I2. Niflungs, 12. Night (Bas-relief), 22, 33, 104, 106, 125. Nisser (Dwarf Elves), 12, 13, 93, 109 — III, 113, 114, 123. Norner, 8. Norse Craftsmen, 67; Mythology, 8, 12, 25.46,63,93, 109— III, 113, 123. Norsemen, 39, 56, 67, 80. North Sea, ,55, 56. Norway, 49, 6y ; Scandinavian King- dom, 5. Norwegian Silver Jewellery, 83, 84 ; Waterfall, 61. Nydam Moss, 68, 69. O. Oaks in Denmark, 5. Odin, 9 — 12. Itidex. 153 Oehlenschlaeger, Adam, xiii, 63. Old Age (Bas-relief), 36. Olpe, 99, 100. Open Sea, 58. Order of the Dannebrog, i, 18. Orestes, 40. Orpheus, 4a P. Painting, Genius of, 125. Palace of Christiansborg, 40. Palm, G. W., 61. Pall Mall Gazette, The, 52. Pan-Athenaic, 36. Panther Hunter, 42, 106, 125. Paris, 40, 131 ; with Helen and Hector, 36. Paris Exhibition of 1867, 45 ; Porcelain at, 118. Parker, Archbishop M., 66. Parthenon, The, 39. Parting of Hector and Andromache, 36. Pelasgi, 94— 97- Persia, 117. " Peter Simple," 57. Pheidias, 39, 42, 98, 1 20. Philippa of Lancaster, 40, 83. Philoctetes, 40. Phoenician Queen, 88. Pictures, Danish, 46 — 61 ; in Water- Colour, 61 — 64. Plaques, 106, 126, 127. Plon, M. Eugene, 16, 18, 23, 30, 32, 41, 64. Po, Plains of the, 95. Polycletus, 98, Pompeian Art, 86, lOl, 102, 123. Pompeii, 64. Porcelain, Chinese, 117, 118; Danish, 109, no, 116, 118, 119, 121 — 124; its Manufacture, 117; Royal Danish Manufactory of, 118, 121. Portrait Busts and Medallions, no. Portuguese, 117. Pottery, n6. Priam and Achilles, 23, 32, 89, 90. Prince Royal of Denmark, 20, 38. Princess of Wales, H.R.H. The, 48, 63, 83. Prior, A., 45. Procession to Parnassus (Bas-relief), 35. Prometheus, 60. Przemisl Ottakar, 82. Psyche, 30, 40, 104, 106, 109, 125 ; and Cupid, 33, 35, 45, 63, 104, 125. Purfleet, 51. Q- Queen Elizabeth, 66, 117; the Phoeni- cian, 88. Queens of Denmark, 40, 81. R. Raffaelle, 4a Ragnar Lodbrog, 12. Rasmussen, Carl, 56. Ravens, Odin's two, 10, 13. Reading the Scriptures, 47. Reaumur, 118. Regin, 11. Renaissance, The, 70, 86, ?>7. Resurrection of Lazarus (Bas-relief), 39. Return, The, 50. U 154 Index. Rhode, F., 59, 60. Richardt, F., 61. Ringsted in Sealand, '82. Roman Art, 70, 86 ; Models, 7, 69. Romans, The, 7, Gj, 68. Rome, 17—19, 24, 28, 39, 64, 84, 88, 96, 104. Rorby, 62. " Rota," The, 19. Royal Academy of London, 52, 112. Royal Danish Galleries i^see Danish Royal Galleries). Royal Porcelain Manufactory, 118, 121. Rustic Figures, 112. s, " Sagas," The, 41. St. George's Chapel, 26. St. Luke's Academy, 18, Salmon Fishing, 61, Salomon, G., 61. Saved, 47. Scandinavian Art, 79, Zj ; Countries and Races, 5, 68 ; Goths, 5, 88 ; Goldsmiths, 70, 80; Myths, u, 12, 26 {see Norse Mythology) ; Native Industries, 68 ; Norwegians, 5 ; Statues by Bissen, 40, 125 ; Swedes, 5, • Schovelin, A., 61. Schumacher, H., 61. Scindr (Dwarf), 12, 13, 79. Scott, Sir Walter, 27. Sculpture, Danish, 14 — 46, 124 — 126; Danish love of, 124; Genius of, 125 ; Sea, Danish Painters of the, 47 — 59. Sea Birds, 56. Sealand, North coast of, 51, 54. Seasons, The (Bas-relief), 36, 102, 104, 106, 125. Semele, 36. Sevres, 118. Shepherd Boy, 125. Shield Brooches, 81. Shield Maidens (Valkyrier), g. Shipping Portraits, 57. Sicyon, 98. Sigride, 41. Sigurd, II, 12, 41. " Silverlette," The (Solje), 84- Simonsen, Professor N., 58. Skagen Lighthouse, 50, 61. Skuld, 8. Skyphos, 104. Sleipner (Odin's Horse), il. Slight Repast, The, 63. Snow Scenes, 40. Solace of the Poor, The, 47. Solje, or " Silverlette," 84. Sonne, 39. Sons of Jacob (Bas-relief), 39. Sorensen, Professor C. F., Artist, Sailor, Yachtsman, founder and head of his own School of Art, 48 — 54. Sound, The, 19, 54, 58. South Jutland, 68. South Kensington Museum, 42, 44. 45. Spanish Felucca, 53- Spectator, The, 52. Spring (Bas-relief), ^6. Statuettes, 106, 124, 125. Stein, 46. "Stockholm," The, 52. . Storck, F., 61. Stormy Sunset off Norway, 49. Stuttgart, 19. Index. 155 Summer (Bas-relief), 36. Sundered, 68. Sunrise at Sea, 53. Sutherland, Duke of, 16, 3a Swan and Cupid, 125. Sweden, a Scandinavian Kingdom, 5. Swedish Boar Hunt, 61. Syren of the North, The, 47. T. Tagus, Entrance to the, 5 3. Taking the Veil, 61. Taunton, Lord, 31, 32. Tazzi, 93, loi, 104. Terra Cotta, 91, .97 — 99; Danish, 91 — 93, 99—106, 115; English, 92; Etruscan, 97, 98 ; Greek, 92, 97 — 99 » Italian, 92. Thames, The, off Purfleet, 51. Theseus, 41. Thiele, M., 31. Thielmann, 46. Thor, II, 18, 27. Thora, 12. Thorsbjerg Moss, 68. Thorvaldsen — Delight of his Country- men in his Works, 6, 25 ; Early re- cognition of his Genius in England, 15 ; Parents, Birth, and Christian Name, 16 ; Childhood and First Prizes, 17; goes to Rome, 17; the "Jason," 15, 17, 22, 29, 103, 104, 125 ; Honour^ and Return to Denmark, 18; brilliant Reception at Copenhagen, 20; Por- trait, 21; "Night" and " Dawn," and other Bas-reliefs, 22, 32, 104, 125 ; Superiority over Canova, 23 Influence of the Antique on his Art, 17, 23, 24 ; Love of Nature, 23, 25 ; True Scan- dinavian, 24, 25 ; Selection and Treat- ment of Subjects, 25, 26; his Works and their Number, 25, 27, 93, 98, 102 — 106, 114, 116, 125 ; Arms and Motto, 26, 27 ; Scriptural Subjects, 28 ; Works in England, 29 ; Central Figure among Danish Artists, 36 ; Bissen, Jerichau, and Fogelberg, his Pupils, 38, 62 ; appoints Bissen to complete his own Works, 39 ; his " Priam and Achilles," 89, 90 . Statuette Portrait of him, 125. Thorvaldsen Museum, The, 20, 27, 39, 92, 114, 125. Thyra, 40, 81 — 83 ; Thyra Vase, 106. • Times, The 44, 52. Titania, 133. Trinity College, Cambridge, 32, Triumph of Alexander, 36, 37 ; of Nep- tune, 91, 103. Trojan Art and Jewellery, 88, 89. Troppau, 18. Troy, 88, 94. Tuscans, The, 95. Tynemouth, 61. Tyrrheni, The, 94 — 97. U. Umbria, 93, 95, 100. Urd, 8. Valdimon, Battle of the, 96. Valkyrie, Valkyrier, 9, 10, 38, 41, 125. 156 Index. Van Huysum, 48. Wedgwood, 99, 106. Vasari, 86. Weidenhaupt, Professor, 18. Vases, Ancient Etruscan, loi — 104; Wells Cathedral, 61. ancient Greek, 97, 98 ; Danish, 99, Werdand, 8. loo, 119; French, 127. Western Art, 86. Ve, 10. Wheel of Fortune, The, 64. Venetian Ambassador, 117. White Mountains, The, 61. Venice, 117. Wilkens, 20. Venus, Bissen's statue of, 40 ; with Cupid, Winckelmann, 17, 24, 25. 33. 34. 36 ; Triumphant, 16, 23, 30 — • Windsor Castle, 26. 33, 106, 109, 125 ; with Vulcan, 66, 67. Winter, 36. Vernet, Horace, 21, 62. Witthusen, Madlle., 48. Victory, 36 ; Danish, 40. Woburn, 32. Vienna, 18. Wolves, Odin's two, 10. Vil^, 10. Wood-cuts, French, 16 ; English, 79. Virgin, The, with Infant Christ and St. Work and Justice, 61. John (Bas-relief), 125. Worsaae, Professor, 7, 68. Von Stampe, The Baroness, 20. Vulcan, 32, 66, 6"], 125 ; his Forge, 23, 32, 65. Y. Ydun, 1 1. W. Ygdrasil (the sacred Ash-tree), 8. Youth (Bas-relief), 36. Wahlquist, 9, 61. Wales, H.R.H. The Princess of, 48, 63. 83. Z. Walhalla, 9, 12, 39, no. Warsaw, 18. Ziller, W., 64. Water Colour Drawings, 61, 64. Zurich, 19. THE END. London ; J. S. Levin, Printer, 59A, Great Tower Street, E.G. UmUv the |iitr0na()C of gis (gxcdlcnrn the f }?anish J^inistcr, AND THE NOBLE PATRONAGE OF THE ROYAL NAVAL CLUB. THB THE THH THB THH THE THE THE THE DUKE OF MANCHESTER. DUKE OF LEEDS. DUCHESS OP INVERNESS. HARQUIS OP DONEGAL. EARL DELAWARR. EARL OP ASHBURNHAM. EARL OF LISTOWEL.. EARL OF CLANWILLIAM. EARL OF HAROWICKE. THE KARL OF GLASGOW. VISCOUNT BARKINGTON. VISCOUNT POWERSCOURT. LORD BUCKHURST. LORD ELLENBOROUCH. LORD ATHLUMLEV. LORD HOTHA.M. LORD THURLOW. u>RD (;eorge QUIN. DOWAGER LADY .MOLESWORTH. DOWAGER LADY COLCHESTER. DOWAGER LADY BEDINGFIELD. DOWAGER LADY INCHIQUIN. LADV THEODOSIA ASHBURNHAM. LADY SOPHIA DKS VAUX. LADV LOUISA TENISON. THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. THE BISHOP OF BROOKLYN. H.R.H. PRINCE DE PANDOLFINO. HIS EXCELLENCY DON CARLOS GUTIERREZ. SHIPPERS OF THE PURE WINES OF SANLUCAR, AND IMPORTERS OF THE NEW SPARKLING WINE, RHINEGAU CHAMPAGNE. ..■,_...- There is nothing more refreshing than ' Rhinepiu Champagne."' Momine Post says—*' At a lime when prohibitive prices circumscribe the pleasures of the table, a word of welcome Messrs Uknyer & Co. for introducing ' The New Sparkling Wine— Rhinegau Champagne,' which superadds to the From Punch. 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The Medical Press and Circular says—" It is quite correct to say all pure Manzanilla comes from Sanlucar. The samples we analysed were taught of Denver & Co., 95, Regent Street, and were quite pure. We have since tried Samples of Amontillado and Solera from the same firm, which are equally piure." F. iMl'OKTED DIRECT PROM THE GROWERS BY T. IDEITYEK^ & CO., WS3SrK AH® SPIRIT ffiEESeSAHTS, No. 95, REGENT STREET, and 26, DOVER STREET, W. MOTICE —Samples of tliese Wines wilt te forwarded tm receipt of Post Stamps tufficitnt lo pay cost of Carriage, nw ■ i\/t. I- ^ generally about Sixpence per sampU. FRANK SMITH AND COMPANY, 13, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C. Altar Covers and Tables- Altar Plate, Flagons. Chalices & Offertory Dishes- Alms Bags and Boxes. Altar Crosses. Candlesticks & Flower Vases. Carpets and Pede Mats. Lecterns and Prayer Desks. Funeral Palls. Ie^.^ iI Memorial Brasses. Credence Tables. mi/1^ Litany Desks. mii Fonts & Font Covers. Pulpits and Desks. Coronse, Branch Lights. Chancel Standards. Special attention is devoted to this branch of our business, — not only for Ecclesiastical, but also for Domestic and Heraldic purposes, such as CURTAINS, VALENCES, PORTltlRES, BANNER SCREENS, &c. &c. Special Patterns have been prepared in this Fabric in the Mediaeval and Renaissance Styles for Curtains, &c. STAUfED GLASS WIIBOWS, AID MONUMENTS. A large and varied Stock may be inspected at the Warehouse : Designs and Estimates forwarded upon application, or Illustrated Catalogues upon receipt of Six Stamps. FRANK SMITH & COMPANY, 13, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C. THE ROYAL DANISH GALLERIES. Under iU W^^M ^^^ 3^^^ lifitinfiss ^^i(ml ^atronaigc of ^^^9^ ^li^ Irinccss of WHslts. MESSRS. A. BORCEN & CO. Beg to draw the attention of their Patrons that they have lately largely extended their Premises, and added spacious Show Rooms to their Establishment, for the Exhibition of Works of Art of the highest class. Messrs. BORGEN & CO. will, as hitherto, always have on view a choice Collection of BJLHISH €tlli PAIlTIligS, by the well-known eminent Masters — Sorensen, Neumann, Bille, Baaooe, Rohde, Andersen, V. Melby, Jerichau, &c., &c. (Sow %tvmmln~m~^0m^nm$, HALL MARKED. DANISH PORCELAIN, Exclusively from the Royal Porcelain Factor)-, Copenhagen. Biscuit Statuettes, after Thorvaldsen, m various sizes. Danish Tei^p^- Cotta, Plain red, white and black, and decorated with flowers, or in the Etruscan Style, in many hundred sizes and shapes. Independently of their Danish Works of Art and Manufactures, Messrs. BORGEN & CO. have opened special Show Rooms of SSBHOB 42111 3mMUM W©EES ©f MMT» COMPRISING THE LARGEST, AND ONLY COLLECTION OF ITS KIND IN ENGLAND, OF PORCELAIN PLAQUES AND VASES, DECORATED BY HAND by the most eminent Porcelain Painters in France and Belgium, more especially by MM. Leonce and Mallet. Wpinion of the press. ART JOURNAL, December ist, i873- " To the powerful attraction of choice pictures by national artists, and both jewellery and terra-cotta of first-rate excellence, also produced by Daneii, Messrs. Borgen have just introduced in a distinct department a class of works of an entirely novel character, and, indeed, unique in England, which not only claim admiring attention for their intrinsic merits, but also are at least worthy of equal record in consequence of their comprehensive and important suggest iveness. These works in question, consisting of plaques and vases constructed of tine porcelain, painted in enamel by artists of the highest talent, constitute works of art that take rank with the finest paintings on canvas or panel, their own dbtinctive and characteristic peculiarity being that they are indestructible. " We cordially congratulate Messrs. Borgen on the sound judgment which has led them to introduce a class of works eminently qualified to elevate and refine the taste, and to give the most welcome delight to the eye, while adding another to the pleasing associations that confirm our national friendship for the Danes." 142, NEW BOND STREET, LONDON, W. ^} UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Jull051LJ RECEIVED JUN10'68-9PM SlMttJ^ LOAN DEPT. 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