Thorvaldsen''s Museum
Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; July & Aug; guided tours in English Sun 3pm; 20kr, free on Wed; www.thorvaldsens.dk . Right next door to Christiansborgs Slotskirke is Thorvaldsen's Museum , converted from Christiansborg's old Coach House in 1839. The unusual museum building, with its simple but strikingly coloured Neoclassical architecture, houses an enormous collection of works and memorabilia (and the body) of Denmark's most famous sculptor. Despite negligible schooling, Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) drew his way into the Danish Academy of Fine Arts before moving on to Rome, where he perfected the heroic, classical figures for which he became famous. Nowadays he's not widely known outside Denmark, although in his day he enjoyed international renown and won commissions all over Europe. The labels of the great, hulking statues here read like a roll-call of the famous and infamous: Vulcan, Adonis, John Russell, Gutenberg, Pius VII and Maximilian, while the Christ Hall contains the huge casts of the statues of Christ and Apostles which decorate Vor Frue Kirke. The bright, multicoloured walls enhance the white statues and reliefs, while a magnificent frieze by Jørgen Sonne on the building's ochre facade depicts the triumphant reception accorded to the sculptor when he returned to live in Denmark after 41 years in Rome. Thorvaldsen was something of a wit too. Asked by the Swedish artist J.T. Sergel how he managed to make such beautiful figures, he held up the scraper with which he was working and replied, "With this"
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