Comment on Jason and the Hope Commission
In a note to his first biography of Thorvaldsen (Thiele 1831, p. 159, note 92), Thiele relates that he had originally interpreted Thorvaldsen’s statements as implying that the clay model of Jason remained standing until the wealthy art collector Thomas Hope commissioned the statue in March 1803, and thereby provided Thorvaldsen with the economic means to have it cast in plaster. In his book’s main text, however, Thiele wrote that Friederike Brun sponsored the plaster casting “at that time,” i.e. presumably in the period from February to early March 1803. In his 1850s biography (Thiele I, p. 181), Thiele presumed more conclusively that the reports of Brun’s sponsorship of the casting were accurate—though he retained mention of the countervailing fact that other, unspecified sources suggested otherwise.
Last updated 23.06.2014