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Loke lænket

Loki Chained to the Rocks

1888/1889

Full size, 48K

Plaster, 1888-1889, has since disappeared. Marble 1928-1929, paid for with funds from Det Freundske Legat (A Danish Grant). Size 82 x 243 x 99 cm. Inv. no. 172. Donated to the museum by Niels Hansen Jacobsen.

 

Exhibitions

Charlottenborg, 1889. Plaster
One-man show at the Free Exhibition Building, 1901. Plaster
The Free Exhibition, 1929. Marble

 

Accompanying remarks

The following quotation from N. M. Petersen's Nordiske Mytologi (Nordic Mythology) was included in the catalogue, no. 434, for the Spring Exhibition at Charlottenborg in 1889:

When the bowl is filled, Sigyn goes over and empties out the venom; but the serpent still drips venom in his face. It gives him such violent convulsions that the earth shakes; this is what we call an earthquake. He lies there chained until Ragnarok.

 

The gods' revenge on Loki

The sculpture's subject comes from Nordic mythology. It shows Loki, who is punished for his misdeeds by being bound to three rocks. A serpent spewing venom was hung above him. Loki's wife, Sigyn, collected the venom in a bowl, but when she had to empty it, the venom dripped on him, and he writhed so that the earth shook. The sculpture shows the moment at which he is writhing in pain, straining all his muscles in an effort to break his bonds.

 

Niels Hansen Jacobsen's debut at Charlottenborg

Niels Hansen Jacobsen studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1884 to 1888. "Loki Chained to the Rock" is his first major sculpture, a piece he modelled at some point during the last year of his studies. The sculpture was exhibited in plaster at Charlottenborg in 1889 and won considerable praise, earning him the annual medal and its travel grant. The original plaster version was purchased by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (Statens Museum for Kunst) and Donated to Aarhus Art Museum, but has since disappeared.

 

NHJ som ung

Niels Hansen Jacobsen's debut piece might have had symbolic significance for him. Loki's face has the artist's own features, and the figure can be seen as a metaphor of his power, which was bound but could be liberated through art.

 

Work on the sculpture

During this period, sculptors were expected to completely master human anatomy. In this debut piece, Niels Hansen Jacobsen chose a complex position that gave him an opportunity to show his skill, using a living model. The story goes that he paid a young student to pose as Loki for no fewer than 1,600 hours. Niels Hansen Jacobsen later said, "He was so hungry that I could really study his ribs and muscles."

 

The position

Døende Slave

Loki's position is a free interpretation of the one used by Michelangelo for "The Dying Slave" (1513-1516), now at the Louvre in Paris. Niels Hansen Jacobsen was familiar with the famous sculpture from reproductions. It was immensely popular in his day, and the position - especially one elbow raised above the head - was often used by artists.