Bertel Thorvaldsen
Rom
Herman Schubart
Montenero
Dateringen hviler på følgende forhold: Listen for neden har med Theodor von der Ropps bestilling 1804-05 at gøre; omtalen af Caspar Bartholin og C.F.F. Stanley daterer listen til 1805, hvor de begge var i Rom; og vigtigst, Thorvaldsen omtaler sin rejse fra Montenero, 11.9.1805, til Rom, som han ankom til 21.9.1805.
Ergo: Tekstfragmentet må være skrevet i 1805 efter Thorvaldsens tilbagekomst til Rom 21.9.1805, og da Bartholin døde 28.9.1805, må fragmentet stamme fra før denne dato.
Fragment of a draft letter: Thorvaldsen has arrived in Rome, he mentions Caspar Bartholin and C.F.F. Stanley. A partial list of Theodor von der Ropp’s commission.
...Deres EccellenzaI den smerte[lige][?]
...[Ti]lbage KomstII fra Deres beha[gelige]
...yndige MonteNeroIII
...til Rom fra Deres behagelig[e]
...Monte Nero, kan jeg ikke beskri[ve]
...ved mine ankomst hertil Rom
...og Elskværdige BartoliniIV Drage [med Døden?]
...Undoms Ven den for[xx]ske StanleyV De ka[x]
| ApolloVII ArianaVIII HomerIX GeserorX MelpomeneXI SaphoXII VenusXIII |
60 60 60 50 50 50 40 |
...Your Excellency the painful [?]
...Return from your pleasant
...lovely Montenero
...to Rome from your pleasant
...Montenero, I can not describe
...at my arrival here at Rome
...and kind Bartolini is struggling [with death?]
...a friend of my youth [for [xx}ske] Stanley you can
| Apollo Ariana Homer Cicero Melpomene Sapho Venus |
60 60 60 50 50 50 40 |
[Translated by Karen Husum]
Fragment of a draft, where part of the paper has been torn off. There is also a list of works related to Theodor von der Ropp’s Commission from 1804-05 of marble copies of antique busts.
On the back there is a bill from Camillo Buti, Thorvaldsen’s landlord in Casa Buti. The bill is reproduced separately.
It appears from the context that the draft is addressed to Schubart, probably as part of another draft of the same date.
Last updated 27.07.2015
I.e. Herman Schubart because Thorvaldsen addressed him in this way in his letters, and because he mentions his return to Rome from the Schubarts’ country house Montenero, where he had spent some weeks from 9.8.1805.
I.e Thorvaldsen’s return to Rome, as seen below, where Thorvaldsen has continued the same sentence.
He arrived in Rome 21.9.1805.
This remark helps to establish the date of the draft.
I.e. the Schubarts’ summer residence Montenero in the hills of that name ca 8 kilometres south of Leghorn.
Probably Caspar Bartholin.
That the word ‘[is] struggling’ has been followed by with death on the part of the paper that has been torn off is a hypothesis based on the fact that Bartholin was dying in Rome at the end of September 1805, see e.g. Schubart’s letter of 16.9.1805.
The Danish architect C.F.F. Stanley, Thorvaldsen’s friend and cohabitant in Casa Buti.
The seven works mentioned in this list are seven full-size marble busts which Theodor von der Ropp commissioned in 1804 together with four colossal busts. As these four were replaced by the two “original” works by Thorvaldsen in 1805, only the 7 smaller busts were left.
The list here, then, must represent an intermediate stage in Ropp’s commission before the final one that Thorvaldsen wrote a month later at the earliest on a letter of 19.10.1805 from Abildgaard.
The prices are in scudi and correspond exactly to the prices in the final commission.
See Ropp’s Commission.
I.e. a copy of the head of the statue Apollo Belvedere in the Vatican Museum in Rome, see Ropp’s Commission.
I.e. a copy of Bacchus in the Capitoline Museum – at the time of the commission it was regarded as an Ariadne, see Ropp’s Commission.
Ie. a copy of a bust of Homer in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. Already in 1799, Thorvaldsen had made a copy of this bust, A751, see Ropp’s Commission.
I.e. a copy of a bust of Cicero in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. In 1799-1800, Thorvaldsen had made two marble copies of this work, A760 & A761, see Ropp’s Commission.
I.e. a copy of the head of the statue Melpomene in the Vatican Museum in Rome, see Ropp’s Commission.
I.e. a copy of a bust, which, at the time of the commission, was regarded as an antique bust of Sappho. The original has not been identified, see Ropp’s Commission.
I.e. a copy of the head of the statue Venus of Medici, in the Uffizies in Florence, see Ropp’s Commission.