Oliver Cornish
Sale Coordinator for Furniture, Sculpture, Rugs & Tapestries
Lot 18TP,W
After Bertel Thorvaldsen (Danish, 1770-1844): A carved white marble bust of Melpomene together with a late 19th century grey scagliola pedestal
3 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£3,000 - £3,500
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Helena Gumley
Head of Sale Carpets and Tapestries
After Bertel Thorvaldsen (Danish, 1770-1844): A carved white marble bust of Melpomene together with a late 19th century grey scagliola pedestal
The maiden, modelled after the antique with drapery to her shoulders looking slightly to sinister, her curling hair dressed with fruiting vine leaves, raised on a circular socle, the pedestal of plain columnar form, together with a modern octagonal polished white marble shallow plinth, the bust, 66cm high, 43cm wide, 24cm deep; the pedestal, 110cm, 30cm wide, 30cm deep; the plinth 4cm high, 44cm wide, 44cm deep (3)
Footnotes
Bertel Thorvaldsen executed his bust of 'Melpomene' between 1804 and 1810 as part of a commission from the Baltic nobleman Theodor von der Ropp. The work depicts Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy, modelled on an ancient prototype in the Vatican's Museo Pio-Clementino. As with much of Thorvaldsen's neoclassical production, the bust belongs to a wider corpus of idealised heads derived from celebrated antiquities, which he produced for collectors eager to acquire marble exemplars of the antique canon. These busts were typically offered at fixed prices and Thorvaldsen is recording as listing his bust of 'Melpomene' at 50 scudi. Executed with a serene monumentality that reflected contemporary neoclassical taste, the whereabouts of the original bust are now unknown but surviving contemporary and later versions are unsigned, consistent with Thorvaldsen's convention in such reproductions, where the authority of the classical model rather than the sculptor's personal invention was emphasised.
Litertature and references
Thorvaldsens Museum, 'Katalog over Thorvaldsens værker', cat. no. AX506, kataloget.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk
Thorvafldsens Museum Archives, 'Ropp's Commission, 1804–05', arkivet.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk
Thorvaldsen's Works and Their Prices', arkivet.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk