Bøger af Jan Zahle

he Danish neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844), who lived most of his life in Rome, was not only one of Europe’s most soughtafter artists; he was also a collector. In addition to his own works and drawings, he built extensive collections of paintings, prints, drawings and books – and of ancient artefacts from Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquity: coins, lockets, containers, vases, lamps, fragments of sculpture and more. He also acquired a large collection of plaster casts, primarily after ancient sculptures and reliefs, but also of works dating from the Renaissance and up until his own lifetime. Thanks to Thorvaldsen’s bequest to the city of Copenhagen, his birthplace, all of these collections are still largely intact and well preserved at his museum.Home to a total of 657 plaster casts, the Thorvaldsen Museum’s cast collection is unique for several reasons: The collection offers us insight into the sculptor’s working methods and the development of his work because it served a clear function as an image bank of forms, motifs and subjects for Thorvaldsen’s own endeavours. Furthermore, the dual fact that the collection is so well preserved and was established over a relatively brief period of time makes it a valuable example illuminating the trade and distribution of plaster casts during the first half of the nineteenth century. These areas of study form the central focal point of Volume I of this publication. Volume II contains a catalogue of theindividual objects in the cast collection, while Volume III collects the overviews, inventories, concordances and primary sources referred to in the first two volumes.Arising out of many years of study of Thorvaldsen’s cast collection conducted by their author, the classical archaeologist Jan Zahle, these books contain comprehensive source material from the period, much of it previously unknown.

Kataloget er fra udstillingen Spejlinger i gips på Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, Billedkunstskolerne og Danmarks Kunstbibliotek, Samlingen af Arkitekturtegninger i 2004. Anledningen var Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademis 250-års jubilæum. Kunstakademiets optagethed af nyklassicismen har betydet, at studier og efterligninger af afstøbninger efter antikkens skulpturer har været en central del af undervisningen. Gipsafstøbningerne blev placeret i ”Antiksalen”, og i forbindelse med jubilæet har Bjørn Nørgård, Jan Zahle og Pontus Kjerrman taget initiativ til at genskabe dele af ”Antiksalen”. I tråd med det søges også at belyse forholdet mellem de ældre afstøbninger og nutidige skulpturer og arbejder i gips. Formålet er at undersøge om der i dag er et samspil mellem tradition og nybrud i fortolkningen af afstøbningerne.