787. BERTEL THORVALDSEN (1770-1844). Backantinna and satyr (Bacchante and Satyr).

Carrara marble, 48 x 77 cm, mounted in a marbled wooden frame, 70 x 98 cm. Signed THORVALDSEN. F.

Compare “Bacchantinde og en satyr” marble relief inventory number A354, 46.5 x 78.3 cm, respectively plaster relief inventory number A355, 47 x 78.8 cm, in Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen

PROVENANCE
Sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen's sterbhus
Auction Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen, 1 October 1849, no 10, “A Bacchantinde Raises a Grape Class, After Which a Small Satyr Seizes”. Purchased for 500 Riksbank Daler by frilord Carl Fredrik Axel Bror von Blixen-Finecke (1822-1873), Dallund Castle, Fyen, Denmark
By inheritance court hunter master frilord Fredrik von Blixen-Finecke (1847-1919), Näsbyholm Castle, Gärdslöv parish, Malmöhus county.
By purchase Rector Nils Buhre (1878-1948), Skurup, Skurup parish, Malmöhus län.
By purchase 25 October 1935, landowner Johan Lachmann (1888-1939), Charlottenlund Castle, Snårestad parish, Malmöhus län.
then by inheritance to the current owner.

LITERATURE
Just Mathias Thiele: About the Danish Sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. In addition to a historically arranged Fortagnelse paa de Arbeiders he carried out, Copenhagen 1849, page 53, the motif “A Bacchantinde med en små Faun” recorded in 1833.
Fædrelandet, No. 188, August 15, 1849, article announcing that an auction is to be held at Thorvaldsens Museum, where the relief is mentioned.
Fædrelandet, No. 234, 8 October 1849, record of the results of the auction on 1 October at Thorvaldsens Museum, where the relief and the buyer are mentioned.
Berlingske politieke og Avertissments-Tidende, No. 239, 9 October 1839, minutes concerning the results of the auction of 1 October at Thorvaldsens Museum, where the relief and the buyer are mentioned.
Swedish castles and gentlemen's seats at the turn of the 20th century, Skåne, Stockholm 1920-1922, page 83, depicted in the outer salon at Näsbyholm; page 85, mentioned.

Since the first half of the 19th century, Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) has been considered one of the most important and influential sculptors of his time. Thorvaldsen was born in 1770 in Copenhagen and already at the age of eleven was admitted to the Danish art academy, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademie. His talent earned him the fine gold medal of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and its travel scholarship, which took him to Rome in 1797. The day Thorvaldsen arrived there, at the absolute cultural center of the time for classical art and its formation, he called as his spiritual birthday. In the Eternal City Thorvaldsen came to live and work most of his life, until 1838.

Thorvaldsen worked as a sculptor within Neoclassicism and had a large studio in the city. In the style, which is based on harmony, balance and exalted human ideals, not infrequently mirrored in the mythology of antiquity, he created a series of masterpieces; statues, reliefs, portraits and monuments. In Rome he called himself Alberto, which is why the initials AT (Alberto Thorvaldsen) appear on some of his sculptures. This name became widely known and over time he received commissions from royal commissions and princely houses in Europe. Thorvaldsen was the main competitor for the glory of Antonio Canova (1757-1822) and then, after the death of the Venetian master, as the most important sculptor in Europe, himself mentor to a large number of young very talented artists. Thorvaldsen and Canova transformed the very idea of sculpture and its techniques to create works of art that inspired their contemporaries and generations of their followers.

Thorvaldsen's graceful work, “Backantinna och satyr”, with its captivating mythological narratives, has neither sooner nor later ceased to impress and seduce. They add steadfastness and the timeless beauty of classical art to a surrounding architecture. The current, masterfully created marble relief, depicts a backantinna and a satyr playfully being fed by grapes. The back antenna is part of the fun-loving circle around Bacchus, the wine god of Greek mythology. The Thorvaldsen Museum contains two almost identical versions of the auction relief; one in plaster and one in marble, which are a pendant to the relief “Pan and a satyr”, inventory number A352, in Thorvaldsen Museum.

The current version, which Stockholms Auktionsverk has the honour to convey, was purchased from Thorvaldsen's estate, in connection with the auction held on 1 October 1849 at the Thorvaldsens Museum in Copenhagen. In the list of the items sold, the relief is listed as number 10, “En Bacchantinde høver en Drueklase, after which a little Satyr grabs”, which was purchased by frilord Carl Fredrik Axel Bror von Blixen-Finecke (1822-1873). In the newspaper Fædrelandet, 8 October 1849, the following minutes of the auction were given:

“The auction in Thorvaldsen's Museum of some of his works and relics, which according to the Museum's purpose by its Board of Directors have been postponed, has begun this morning. Of the completed marble works, most of them were sold, especially the reliefs at good prices. The statue “Mercur, who kills Argus”, was bought by the Spanish Minister, Mr. de Cuëto, for 2000 Rbd., and “Cupid, who supported on the arch looking toward Heaven”, sold for 1250 Rbd. The purchaser was believed to be Etatsraad Suhr, to whom also the bas-relief, “The Gratians, Listening to the Song of Cupid”, is purchased for 1600 Rbd. Of the other reliefs in Marble, “Natten” was purchased by Capt. Brygger Jacobsen for 580 Rbd., “Amor who writes Jupiter Love” and “Pan who teaches a Satyr to play Fløite”, by Hr. de Cuëto; “Amor kærtegende Hund” and “Amor et Net to catch Psyche” by Kmherr Scavenius; “a Bachantinde raising a Drueclasse” by Baron Blixen-Finecke; “a young Girl plaiting a Flower garland” by Consul Hage; “Amor caressing a Swan” by Dr. Poulsen to England and “3 Hovering Angels” by Sir H. Wynn; by contrast, “Ganymed, who gives the Eagle Drink”, (Statue) 2 Reliefs and “a Camin with Amorines and Caryatids” in Relief did not sell because the stipulated Price could not be obtained. Of the unfinished works, several were purchased at the Museum's own expense for the same reason. Many of the Gibb castings went to Paris, from where an Agent is sent here on the occasion of the auction. We assume that in the morning one has only come to an end with Thorvaldsen's own works in Gibs.“

The work is created with an ingenious artistic precision. The textures are almost recognizable and the soft movement, so precisely rendered in the hard material. A very representative work in Thorvaldsen's oeuvre. In Rome, Thorvaldsen is honored today through Piazza Thorvaldsen, on the northern edge of Villa Borghese, and in his homeland, when he returned to Denmark as a hero, the Thorvaldsen Museum, Denmark's oldest museum, was erected.