CHAP, in THORWALDSEN'S MUSEUM 41 



Copenhagen, where Thorwaldsen's Museum seems to 

 have awakened in him the greatest admiration. 



This is the sight of the North ; it is of its kind un- 

 rivalled. Well, indeed, may his countrymen be 

 proud of such a man. He was the son of a poor 

 carpenter from Iceland, and was born in Copenhagen 

 in 1770. His genius prompted him to go to Rome, 

 where he designed his first statue, Jason. This 

 being seen by Mr. Hope of London, he was so 

 struck by its beauty that he ordered it in marble, 

 and from this moment his fame was established, and 

 commissions poured in upon him. His collection is 

 in a building of Egyptian architecture, and very 

 ugly ; round it are painted different events in his life, 

 and over the door is a bronze statue of Fame drawn 

 by four horses. Within the building there is a 

 courtyard, in the centre of which Thorwaldsen lies 

 buried. . . . The number of his works collected here 

 is 650. They are mostly classical, and beautiful in 

 the extreme. To stand there, and think that this is all 

 the work of one man, and that he is lying buried in 

 the middle of them, impresses serious thoughts upon 

 one. His most beautiful works, I thought, were the 

 statue of our Saviour and those of the twelve 

 Apostles, substituting St. Paul for Judas ; these he 

 presented to the Church of Our Lady. Our Saviour 

 is standing over the altar, as if looking down on the 

 congregation ; the expression of the face is most 

 beautiful a mixture of gentleness and majesty. No 

 one could look upon the face without a feeling of 

 reverence and awe involuntarily coming over him. 

 From Copenhagen he proceeded to Christiania, and 

 thus speaks of his first view of the coast of Norway : 

 On going on deck we found ourselves close to the 

 coast of Norway. I was by no means disappointed 



