Comment on 3.12.1799
It is uncertain what good reasons Abildgaard refers to here, but it has been suggested that he was worried that the idiom of the bust – the missing wig and the strict classical style – was too advanced for the professors of the Academy; and that Thorvaldsen therefore might risk not having his scholarship prolonged, see Else Kai Sass: Thorvaldsens Portrætbuster, Copenhagen 1963-65, vol. I, p. 40-41.
Thiele I, p. 140-141 mentions the matter but also gives no explanation why the bust of Tyge Rothe was not exhibited at the Academy.
Last updated 08.01.2018