s Hope, the English banker, gave him an order for the Jason in
marble. In an hour his life was changed. He was living in Rome not as a
student on charity, but as an artist gaining his living. We are forced
to add that Mr. Hope did not receive this statue until 1828, and
Thorwaldsen has been much blamed for his apparent ingratitude; but we
cannot here give all the details of the unfortunate affair.

Thorwaldsen had a true and faithful friend in Rome, the archaeologist
Zoega; at his house the young Dane had met a beautiful Italian girl,
Anna Maria Magnani, whom he loved devotedly. She was too ambitious to
marry a poor sculptor, so she married a rich M. d'Uhden; but she
persuaded Thorwaldsen to sign an agreement by which he bound himself to
take care of her if she should not agree with her husband and should
leave him; this was just what happened in 1803, and the sculptor
received her into his house, where she remained sixteen years, when she
disappears from his life. He provided an honorable marriage for their
daughter.

[Illustration: FIG. 118.--JASON. _By Thorwaldsen._]

In 1803 Thorwaldsen also made the acquaintance of the Baron von
Schubart, the Danish Minister, who presented the sculptor to Baron von
Humboldt; and through the friendship of these two men, and the persons
to whom they presented him, Thorwaldsen received many orders. In 1804
his fame had become so well established that he received orders from all
countries, and from this time, during the rest of his life, he was never
able to do all that was required of him. He was much courted in society,
where he was praised for his art and beloved for his agreeable and
pleasing manner. In this same year he was made a Professor of the Royal
Academy of Florence; and though the Academy of Copenhagen expected his
return, they would not recall him from the scene of his triumphs, and
sent him a gift of four hundred crowns. A few months later he was made a
member of the Academy of Bologna and of that of his native city, in
which last he was also appointed a Professor.

Many circumstances conspired to increase his popularity and to excite
the popular interest in him, when, in 1805, he produced the bas-relief
of the Abduction of Briseis, which still remains one of his most
celebrated works. His Jason had put him on a level with Canova, who was
then at the height of his fame; now the Briseis was said by many to
excel the same type of works by Canova, and there is no questio