Franzen and Wallin devoted themselves to religious poetry. The
most famous of all modern Swedish poets was Esaias Tegner, whose
"Frithiof's Saga" achieved an international reputation. Politically, he was
conspicuous for his inveterate hostility to the "Holy Alliance" and its
reactionary spirit in state, church and literature.

[Sidenote: Oscar I. of Sweden]

Bernadotte's son, Oscar I., was forty-five years old when he ascended the
throne. Like his father, he was a patron of the fine arts. Upon his
accession several important reforms were at once enacted by the new
Riksdag. It was decided that this assembly should meet every third instead
of every fifth year; the liberty of the press was extended, and equal
rights were accorded to women in certain matters of inheritance and of
marriage. This last reform aroused so much criticism that a powerful
opposition was organized in the Riksdag, under the leadership of
Hartmansdorff and Bishop Wingan.

[Sidenote: Death of Thorvaldsen]

[Sidenote: The great sculptor's career]

Albert Bertal Thorvaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, died suddenly on
March 25, at Copenhagen. Thorvaldsen was the son of an Icelandic sailor,
who incidentally earned a living by carving wooden figure-heads for ships.
The boy was born at sea, in 1770, while his mother was making a voyage to
Copenhagen. At the age of twenty-four, young Thorvaldsen, who had attended
the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Copenhagen, won the grand prize, which
enabled him to pursue his studies at Rome. His first work was the model of
a colossal statue of Jason, a marble execution of which was ordered by
Thomas Hope, the English banker. For this work Thorvaldsen asked six
hundred sequins. Hope offered him eight hundred. Yet Thorvaldsen did not
fulfil his contract with Hope until fourteen years had passed. At the house
of Baron Wilhelm von Humboldt, in Rome, Thorvaldsen met Count von Moltke,
who commissioned him to execute two statues of Bacchus and Ariadne. About
the same time he made his famous "Cupid and Psyche" for the Countess von
Ronzov. The fame of these statues and others was such that the Academy of
Copenhagen bestowed upon the young sculptor another prize of four hundred
crowns.

[Sidenote: Famous works]

[Sidenote: A Napoleonic order]

[Sidenote: "Morning and Night"]

In the spring of 1805 Thorvaldsen made his first important bass-relief,
"The Abduction of Briseis," which still remains one of the most celebrated
o