‘Ages of Love’ Relief, After Thorvaldsen (Bing & Grondahl, Denmark), 2nd Half of the 19th Century

This is somewhat different from what I normally post, but I thought it worthy of exhibition! It is a biscuit ware relief copied after a larger marble relief from 1824, made by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). Thorvaldsen lived and worked for about 40 years in Rome and gained international fame. His most famous work is probably his statue of Christ from 1921: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christus_(statue), copied many times and used in churches in Europe and the US. There is a museum dedicated to him here in Copenhagen, housed in a mid-19th century building quite unlike anything else.

Now, back to the relief:
Psyche (with wings) gives away cherubs, symbolising love, to young and old, men and women. On the left an old man tries in vain to grasp his cherub, a somewhat younger man is too tired, it appears, to take care of his. A woman in the middle carries her cherub by the wings (!), perhaps too busy to care about love, while another cherishes hers and a young woman is happy to receive one! On the right a teenager and a child are looking curiously at the cherubs. I am particularly amused by the basket full of little cherubs!

Size: 12 x 24.5 cm (4.7 x 9.6 in.). Mark (a little faint): ‘B & G’. On porcelain, this was the mark used by Bing & Grondahl 1853-1894, and I presume it would be the same for this relief. Moreover, ‘Eneret’ (‘monopoly’) and the number 40. The relief is a little dirty – it used to be my grandparents’ and my grandfather had it in his tool shed, where I often looked at it as a child!