Thorvaldsen's Works, Prices

• Redaktørerne ved Arkivet, arkivet.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk, 2013
• Translation by David Possen

• How much did Thorvaldsen’s works cost? This article presents a list of sample prices.
  The list is updated regularly.

Prices

• Statues
• Reliefs and friezes
• Larger commissions
• Portrait busts
• Busts carved after classical models
• Plaster casts

As a matter of course, the prices of Thorvaldsen’s sculptures were proportional to their size. These proportional calculations were made on an entirely concrete basis: namely, the costs of materials and production were combined to yield a basic sum, which was then adjusted to the size of the artwork at issue. Thorvaldsen described the principles he used for calculating prices in a letter dated 18.6.1806, from Rome to Denmark, containing a list of prices for his various types of artworks.
For statues, Thorvaldsen’s prices were based closely on the Roman palmi, a unit of length. 1 palmo corresponded to about nine inches, or 22.3 cm; on this see the Related Article on Weights and Measures. The taller a statue was, the higher its price. On the other hand, the increase in a statue’s price was not necessarily directly proportional to its height, as a statue also grows in width and depth when it becomes taller^I. For example: in 1806, a Thorvaldsen statue with a height of 6 palmi cost 600 scudi, while one of 10 palmi—that is, not even twice as tall—cost more than three times as much, namely, 2000 scudi.
For reliefs, the price was determined first by the number of main figures in the scene to be depicted, and then by how tall the figures and the relief as a whole were to be. The relief Briseis and Achilles, cf. A490, which Thorvaldsen had sold in marble to Theodor von der Ropp in 1805, cost a total of 550 scudi, i.e., 110 scudi per figure of ca. 4½ palmi each.
For larger commissions, the price was set following a concrete estimate. Busts appear to have been divided into two main price categories: those in “slightly more than life-size,” as it was then called, i.e., ca. 50-60 cm tall, and those in colossal size, i.e., 70-80 cm tall.

With regard to Thorvaldsen’s personal income, he would ordinarily charge the same amount for himself as he did for the costs of materials and production, so that he took home ca. 50% of the work’s total sales price. On this see the Related Article Thorvaldsen’s Works, Setting Prices.

As a rule, Thorvaldsen set his prices in the Roman currency scudi; on this see the Related Article Monetary Units.

Finally, payment was normally agreed to be made in installments. On this see the Related Article Thorvaldsen’s Works, Payment in Installments.

Price increases

The prices for Thorvaldsen’s works rose in tandem with the sculptor’s growing fame. An increase is already evident between his earliest commissions, in 1803, and the price list that he produced in 1806. As is evident from the lists below, Jason, at a height of 11 palmi, cost 1320 scudi in 1803, while a statue of only 10 palmi in height would have fetched 2000 scudi in 1806. In 1818, the merely (ca.) 8 palmi tall Maria Fjodorovna Barjatinskaja cost 3000 scudi.
A statue of 6 palmi in height cost 400 scudi in 1804, 600 scudi in 1808, and 800 scudi in 1809. A similar price increase can also be observed for Thorvaldsen’s reliefs, as can be seen in the examples below.

Nevertheless, by comparison with the prices for Antonio Canova’s sculptures, Thorvaldsen’s artworks were quite cheap. According to a letter dated 30.1.1807 from Thorvaldsen’s friend C.F. Høyer, Canova received 36,000 scudi in 1807 for four marble statues of 8 palmi in height, i.e., 9,000 scudi/statue. In 1806, Thorvaldsen accepted 1,000 scudi for a similar statue—so Canova was nine times as expensive as Thorvaldsen at that point.

Statues

Reliefs and friezes

Larger commissions

Portrait busts

Busts carved after classical models

Plaster casts

References

• Kira Kofoed: Thorvaldsens prisfastsættelse af egne værker, arkivet.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk, 2009.

Commentaries

1. In purely mathematical terms, the relation can be expressed as that the volume of the statue increases as the cube of its height. Thus, for example, a statue that is doubled in height will increase eightfold in volume.

Last updated 08.07.2018