Comment on 16.2.1807
Hansen had given Thorvaldsen a relatively free hand with regard to the choice of subjects – yet within the general framework of the task:
The four reliefs commissioned for Christiansborg were to be allegories of Strength, Truth (= Sandhed, which Thorvaldsen read as Sundhed = Health), Justice, and Wisdom, but it was up to Thorvaldsen to decide precisely how.
While the relief for the pediment of the courthouse merely had to be “appropriate”, Hansen did not specify the other two reliefs.
This degree of freedom in the artistic decoration of public buildings was presumably quite uncommon in the absolute monarchy of Denmark.
See also the subject heading Artistic Freedom.
Last updated 09.09.2015