Comment on Presumably not later than January 1798
I.e. probably Thorvaldsen’s Agrippa, A759, a marble copy of an antique bust.
This bust dates from 1799-1800. When Thorvaldsen here writes what he has “received for” Agrippa, he must mean that he has received money by selling a copy of it.
The bust, however, was not sold but transported to Denmark in 1802 as proof of Thorvaldsen’s progress in marble carving, cf. Transportation of Thorvaldsen’s Artworks to Copenhagen 1798 and 1802.
There are at least two possible explanations of the reference to the bust on this sheet – the first being that Thorvaldsen‘s note about the bust has been made some years after the sketch of Bassi, cf. C492r, on the recto of the paper because, around 1805, he thought that the bust had been sold, cf. his letter dated 28.7.1805 to Nicolai Abildgaard. In this case, the note must have been written around 1805.
Another possibility is that, around 1797-98, Thorvaldsen had made another, today unknown, copy of Agrippa, or maybe just a plaster cast, which he had sold and thus “received” payment for. This possibility exists, but so far no other sources support this.
Last updated 31.08.2017