Comment on 6.8.1804

Neither Thorvaldsen’s letter to Camillo Landini nor Landini’s answer is known today, see the list of Thorvaldsen’s Lost Letters. Lund enclosed Landini’s answer in his next letter to Thorvaldsen of 11.8.1804. It appears from this letter from Lund that Landini had not got very far with his work in Thorvaldsen’s absence. Therefore, judging from the contents of Lund’s letter, Landini’s letter must have contained an account of the present state of affairs: “The bust of Count Moltke has not advanced very much, I have been there twice today in order to talk to Landini but have not met him[;] as he has sent me the enclosed letter, I believe he has told you himself why he has not worked on it, but I shall ask him to work faster.”
Besides, cf. the draft fragment on the same sheet (see below in the text of the letter), Thorvaldsen wanted to know whether Landini had time to continue working for him another month.
This practice of sending parcels of letter to one person who was then responsible for the further distribution of the different letters was quite common at the time, see the related article On Letters and Writing of that period.

Last updated 08.06.2015