Offered by Robert Schreuder Antiquair
After Bertel Thorvaldsen: a finely sculpted serpentine marble lion of Lucerne.
In 1818-1819, the famous Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) produced a model for a monument to the Swiss Guards who had fought in Paris in defense of King Louis XVI during the storming of the Tuileries by revolutionary forces on August 10, 1792. The monument Dying Lion (The Lucerne Lion) was ultimately carved in colossal size, following Thorvaldsen’s model, directly into a cliff face in Lucerne’s Glacier Garden where it was unveiled in 1821.
Dating to the last quarter of the 19th century, our serpentine model is a typical souvenir of a Grand Tour of Italy and Switserland. Thorvaldsen worked for a long period in Italy where he was regarded by travelers on Grand Tour as the most important sculptor of the Neoclassical and early Romantic periods, along with Italian sculptor Antonia Canova.
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