Ganymede1.0111_Thorvaldsen1

Ganymede1.0111_Thorvaldsen1

Bertel Thorvaldsen, 1770-1844, "Ganymede with Jupiter's Eagle," marble sculpture group, 1817, Thorvaldsen Museum A44 (93.3cm high of A45). For A44, shown in its marble version at right (carved in 1817 in Rome), several copies (or "versions" per Reid) dates 1815-1841 survive: at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, at Kennedy Galleries, New York, and at the Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen. Distinguishing the A44 from A45 is potentially confusing.

His GanymedeA45 slightly smaller (88.7cm) than 1817 GanymedeA44 (93.3cm) (Thorvaldsen Museum). GanymedeA45=...1.0111_Thorvaldsen2.

— Thorvaldsen's Ganymedes:
— "Ganymede Offering the Cup" A40/A854=Ganymede1.0110

— "Ganymede With Jupiter's Eagle" A44/A45=Ganymede1.0111

— "Ganymede Filling the Cup" A42=Ganymede1.0112

— "The Abduction of Ganymede" A349 and A350=Ganymede1.0113

— "Hebe Gives Ganymede the Cup and Pitcher" A351=Ganymede1.0114

— "Cupid and Ganymede Playing at Dice" A395=Ganymede1.0115

Marble sculpture of Ganymede, a young man, kneeling and offering a cup to an eagle, which drinks from it

Why so many Ganymedes? —— Thorvaldsen treated the figure of Ganymede in several discrete conceptions, each surviving in several copies in various media — reliefs, plaster casts, and marble sculptures. He represented Ganymede solo, and in groups together with the Eagle, with Hebe, and with Cupid.

Maurizio includes the Ganymede myth among other "stories in which Zeus disguises himself, often as an animal, in order to rape or seduce (if that is the right word) a human being, usually (but not always) a woman." However, a wide range of interpretations of Ganymede's rapture/rape/abduction have been offered over the centuries. Morford & Lenardon discuss that in an instructive sidebar. (Also, cf. Ganymede1.0000.) Understanding the range of Ganymedes — from abductee to enraptured acolyte — can help one respond to Thorvaldsen's sculptural message. In other words: In Thorvaldsen's mind, the interaction between bird and boy here may not be so repulsive as one might initially think. —— Conversely, Hogarth's take on the myth may not be so uplifting; see Michelangelo's lost Ganymede used as commentary in Actaeon2.0001_Hogarth.