tant original works, and also restored the marbles of
AEgina, now at Munich; this was a great task, but his study of the
antique had made him better able to do it than was any other modern
sculptor.

[Illustration: FIG. 119.--GANYMEDE AND THE EAGLE. _By Thorwaldsen._]

The exquisite group of Ganymede and the Eagle (Fig. 119) shows the
effect of his study of the antique, and the same may be said of his
statue of Hope, a small copy of which was afterward placed above the
tomb of the Baroness von Humboldt. The Three Graces (Fig. 120) belongs
to the year 1817; the Mercury was of about this date, as well as the
elegant statue of the Princess Baryatinska, which is his finest portrait
statue.

After an absence from Denmark of twenty-three years he left Rome in
July, 1819, and turned his face toward home. His model for the famous
Lion of Lucerne had already been sent on before him, and the work
commenced by one of his pupils, Bienaime. Thorwaldsen first went to
Lucerne, where he gave all necessary advice in this work, and then
proceeding on his journey reached Copenhagen on the 3d of October.
Apartments had been prepared for him in the Academy of Fine Arts, and as
soon as it was known that he was there he was the centre of attraction
and importance. Crowds went to welcome him to his home. A great
reception and a grand banquet were given in his honor, and he was lauded
to the skies in speeches, and was made a Counsellor of State, in order
that he might sit at table with the royal family and not violate the
court etiquette.

[Illustration: FIG. 120.--THE THREE GRACES. _By Thorwaldsen._]

All this must have gratified the artist, who had earned such proud
honors by the force of his genius; but it interests us much more to know
that he received commissions for some very important works, among which
those of the Church of Our Lady are very interesting. The orders for all
the work which he did here were not given at once, but in the end it
became a splendid monument to this sculptor, and embraces almost all his
religious works of any importance. There are the figures of Christ and
the Twelve Apostles; the Angel of Baptism, which is an exquisite font;
the Preaching of St. John the Baptist, which is a group in terra-cotta
on the pediment of the church; a bas-relief in marble of the
Institution of the Lord's Supper; another in plaster of Christ's Entry
into Jerusalem; one of Christ Bearing the Cross; one of the Baptism of
Christ; a