FROM THE CIRCLE OF BERTEL THORVALDSEN Rome, 1st half of the 19th century. Monumental figure of Adonis standing in contrapposto, loosely leaning against a tree stump, his curly head tilted to the side. His robe is draped over the tree stump, in front of a hunted hare. In his right hand, the figure is holding a spear pointing to the ground. On a later square base. Gray speckled Carrara marble. H 210 cm, base 85 × 74 × 74 cm. Base with chips and losses, as well as a recess at the rear left-hand corner. Hare loose. Requires some cleaning. Provenance: - Private collection, Rome. The figure of Adonis on offer shows a great similarity with a work by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, which he sculpted between 1809 and 1831 for Ludwig I, who later became King of Bavaria. In Greek mythology, Adonis is considered the epitome of Male Beauty, despite his incestuous birth at the hands of his mother Myrrha and her father, King Kinyras of Assyria. As a punishment for his impure origins, Myrrha was transformed into a myrrh tree. When the appointed time of her punishment had elapsed, the bark of the tree burst open and the child Adonis was born. The transience of Beauty is shown by the early demise of Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar while hunting. The existing tree stump and the killed hare can thus be interpreted as symbols of his birth and death, respectively. The tangible proximity to the art of Antiquity and the possibility of studying the sculptures from Antiquity attracted many artists of the time to Rome, where the famous Antonio Canova was also active since 1779. Later, the German sculptors Johann Heinrich Dannecker and Johann Gottfried Schadow were also drawn there. Thorvaldsen created his first major work with the figure of Jason with the Golden Fleece (1803), now in the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen. Other versions of the figure of Adonis from the Neue Pinakothek can be found in the online catalog of works. For example, another version in white marble, today part of the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen (A790), at the same location, two plaster casts (A53 and A789), and a version in bronze, created between 1821 and 1825 for the Palace of Christian VIII, at Amalienborg Castle (Ax268). The great interest in these Classicist works led Thorvaldsen to set up a large workshop with a division of labor. While he himself created the designs and bozetti, he left the transfer to larger dimensions and materials to his employees. An exception is the Munich Adonis figure, which is said to have been executed by Thorvaldsen himself. Compared to the Munich Adonis, the version on offer is more masculine and athletic. The sex is covered by a fig leaf, while Thorvaldsen's works in Munich and Copenhagen show it openly. However, Thorvaldsen's depiction of Adonis with a fig leaf has also survived in an engraving by A. Bertini (E39). Further differences can be found in the posture of the head, which points to the right in the statue on offer, as well as in the use of the gray stone, which Thorvaldsen is not known to have used. It can therefore be assumed that the work on offer was created by an artist who knew Thorvaldsen's work and may have worked in his workshop at some point. Birkedal Harmann Jörgen: Gesenktes Haupt und Emporblicke. Neue Beiträge zu Thorvaldsens Antikenrezeption. In: Römisches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte 2 (1985) pp. 209-234. * The full tax is charged on this item marked * in the auction catalogue, i.e. VAT is charged on the sum of the bid price plus the surcharge for those items. The VAT will be refunded to Purchasers providing a validly stamped export declaration.