Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen (Danish: [ˈpɛɐ̯tl̩ ˈtsʰɒːˌvælˀsn̩]; sometimes given as Thorwaldsen; 19 November 1770 – 24 March 1844) was a Danish-Icelandic sculptor and medalist of international fame,[1] who spent most of his life (1797–1838) in Italy.

Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen into a working-class Danish/Icelandic family, and was accepted to the Royal Danish Academy of Art at the age of eleven.

[6] In 1781, by the help of some friends, eleven-year-old Thorvaldsen was admitted to Copenhagen's Royal Danish Academy of Art (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi), first as a draftsman, and from 1786 at the modeling school.

Leaving Copenhagen on 30 August on the frigate Thetis, he landed in Palermo in January 1797 and traveled to Naples, where he studied for a month before making his entry to Rome on 8 March 1797.

In Rome he lived at the Casa Buti, on the Via Sistina, in front of the Spanish Steps and had his workshop in the stables of the Palazzo Barberini.

As a frequent guest at Zoëga's house he met Anna Maria von Uhden, born Magnani.

Thorvaldsen also studied with another Dane, Asmus Jacob Carstens whose handling of classic themes became a source of inspiration.

Thorvaldsen's first success was the model for a statue of Jason; finished in 1801 it was highly praised by Antonio Canova, the most popular sculptor in the city.

In 1803, as he was set to leave Rome, he received the commission to execute the Jason in marble from Thomas Hope, a wealthy English art-patron.

In 1804 he finished Dance of the Muses at Helicon and a group statue of Cupid and Psyche and other important early works such as Apollo, Bacchus og Ganymedes.

In the spring of 1818 Thorvaldsen fell ill, and during his convalescence he was nursed by the Scottish lady Miss Frances Mackenzie.

Thorvaldsen's statue of Pope Pius VII is found in the Clementine Chapel in the Vatican, for which he was the only non-Italian artist to ever have been commissioned to produce a piece.

Thorvaldsen produced some striking and affecting statues of historic figures, including two in Warsaw, Poland: an equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski that now stands before the Presidential Palace; and the seated Nicolaus Copernicus, before the Polish Academy of Sciences building—both located on Warsaw's Krakowskie Przedmieście.

A replica of the Copernicus statue was cast in bronze and installed in 1973 on Chicago's lakefront along Solidarity Drive in the city's Museum Campus.

There is also a replica of this statue in visitors' centers associated with the LDS Church's temples in Mesa, Arizona, Laie, Hawaii, México City, Los Angeles, California, Portland, Oregon, Washington D.C., Hamilton, New Zealand, and São Paulo, Brazil, along with visitors' centers in Independence, Missouri, and Nauvoo, Illinois.

The Christus is also a feature of the visitors' center associated with the church's Rome Italy Temple, where it is displayed alongside Thorvaldsen's statues of the Twelve Apostles also from Vor Frue Kirke.

[13] Additional replicas of the Christus include a full-size replica at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland within its iconic dome,[14] and a full-sized copy in bronze at the Ben H. Powell III family plot in Oakwood Cemetery in Huntsville, Texas as a memorial to the Powell's son Rawley.

Thorvaldsen's Christus was recreated in Lego by parishioners of a Swedish Protestant church in Västerås and unveiled on Easter Sunday 2009.

A bronze copy of Thorvaldsen's Self-Portrait stands in Central Park, New York, near the East 97 Street entrance.