Johannes Wiedewelt
He became a court sculptor, introducing neoclassical ideals to Denmark in the form of palace decorations, garden sculptures and artifacts and, especially, memorial monuments.
[2][3] [4] When Miani left Denmark in 1745 to return to Italy, the elder Wiedewelt took a stronger hand in training the boy, apprenticing him in his workshop.
At the same time the young Wiedeweldt continued at the academy, drawing under Johan Christof Petzoldt (1708-1762) and he presumedly also trained under royal sculptor to the Danish Court, Didrick Gercken (169-1748).
[5][6] Several months later at nineteen years of age he ventured out on a student travel that took him over Hamburg to Rouen and finally to Paris in August 1750.
There he met the Danish Legation secretary to the French Court in Paris Joachim Wasserschlebe (1709-1787) who would become a patron of the young sculptor.
During 1752–1754, Wiedewelt made a sculpture of fellow-Dane, Magnus Gustav Arbien (1716–1760), medallionist who was at the time studying under a royal stipend from the Danish Court.
At the academy he, along with other students, came under the influence of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who had lived in Rome since 1740 and who set a heightened focus on antiquities as artistic subject matter.
Wiedewelt's friendship and admiration for Winckelmann left a deep impression on him, especially in regards his acquired knowledge and appreciation for Ancient Greek artifacts and art.
[9] Wiedewelt left Rome on 1 July 1758, when his financial support was running out, and after he had been ordered home to Denmark by the academy.
They traveled over Caprarola, Siena, Florence, Pisa, Carrara, Lucca, Bologna, Padua, Venice, and Trieste where they studied the local art collections and churches, and on through the Tyrol and Germany.
As a first commission he was requested to sculpt a memorial monument to the long deceased king Christian VI of Denmark by his widowed wife, Sophie Magdalene.
In 1765-1766 he delivered a plaster allegorical relief and twelve medallions of the Oldenborg kings to the sumptuous Knights Hall (Riddersalen) at Christiansborg Palace, plus additional decorative pieces.
Large commissions from the court slowed down drastically after this foreign tour, as Johann Friedrich Struensee's took over control of the country from the weak, young, schizophrenic, newly crowned King Christian VII and put his cost-cutting reforms into place between 1769 and 1771.
From this point on, although Wiedewelt remained court sculptor until his death, his commissions came primarily from private patrons, and were mostly grave monuments and sarcophaguses.
Among these are one for Ludvig Holberg in Sorø made in 1779, and another for the first wife of Adam Gottlob Moltke, statesman and high official at the Danish Court.
He decorated the park with monuments and memorial stones in honour of exceptional Danes, Norwegians, and Holsteiners, placing these pieces in the open parkland.
Between 1785 and 1801, Wiedewelt created fifteen monuments for the day's important people at Assistens Cemetery near Copenhagen's Northern City Gate (Danish: Nørreport).
He worked hard to keep the academy running well, facing often-shifting attitudes from the court and uncertain royal financial support.
In spite of his meager economy he continued to support two elderly sisters, a servant man, as well as a poor cousin.
By the end Wiedewelt had pawned most of his belongings, when a final catastrophe proved to be too much for him; a shipload of marble blocks he had purchased with borrowed money went to the bottom of the sea near Læsø.
His works were tasteful, and influenced by both his French Baroque training and his careful study of and appreciation for late Greek and Roman art.
He illustrated a deluxe edition of Ludvig Holberg's "Peder Paars" in 1772, engravings for which were made by Johan Frederik Clemens, who collaborated with Wiedewelt on several projects.
Clemens also engraved these illustrations, Wiedewelt, along with architect Harsdorff, was one of the primary figures responsible for introducing Neoclassicism to Denmark.
In 1803, Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, poet and playwright, wrote a well-known elegy in his honour, calling him "Denmark's Phidias".
Taus hun sukker Bølgen mildt sig lukker om den gamle Tindings sølvgråe Haar.
Troskab græder I de hvide Marmorklæder Kold og bleg, den ranke hulde Mø.
Faithfulness cries In its white marble clothes Cold and pale, the proud gracious maiden Hand on breast Never, never comforted She stares out onto the dark lake.
