Jason with the Golden Fleece (1803)Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844)Thorvaldsen’s work was in

Jason with the Golden Fleece (1803)

Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844)

Thorvaldsen’s work was initially executed for the Copenhagen Academy to demonstrate his progress, and the life-size clay version created in 1803 is considered to be the artist’s first great work. A marble version was subsequently commissioned by Thomas Hope, and this version was completed in 1828. Hope’s marble version of Jason was purchased by Thorvaldsens Museum at an auction in England in 1917.

The sculpture expresses the gist of the Ancient Greek myth of Jason recounted by the Alexandrian poet Apollonios of Rhodes, about a hero who travelled on a voyage in search of the Golden Fleece in an attempt to help his father recover his kingdom from King Pelias, Jason’s uncle. The sculpture depicts him proud in the moment where he has managed to get the fleece and now returns home to his kingdom.

It is considered to be Thorvaldsen’s breakthrough work, the statue’s theme stems from a drawing of Jason and the Golden Fleece by Asmus Jacob Carstens but the esthetic of the nude figure is also inspired by the Apollo Belvedere and Doryphoros, both from antiquity. Thorvaldsen’s contemporaries recognised that with this sculpture new life had successfully been given to Antiquity and thus the belief in the free man had been re-established. As such Thorvaldsen’s Jason marks the threshold to the 1800s, when western representative democracies saw the light of day. 

Marble, H: 2.42m - A822

Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen