A Genio Lumen (Art and the Genius of Light)
A Genio Lumen (Art and the Genius of Light)
3D
Published 2023-08-04T11:27:27+00:00
The scene is allegorical, that is to say that it is the tangible picture of an abstract concept. The woman drawing is thus the embodiment of art – not only visual art in a narrow sense, but also of poetry and music, as can be seen from the scrolls and the lyre. The boy with the angel’s wings is a genius, i.e. a spirit: a guardian spirit of art. A. GENIO LUMEN is Latin and means something like “From the genius (comes) light”. So the boy is bringing the illumination (the owl = wisdom), power or inspiration that art requires. And that this is exactly what art – in the personage of this woman – needs emerges clearly from the despondency and fatigue that her rounded back and heavily resting head express.
| Date published | 04/08/2023 |
| Title | A Genio Lumen (Art and the Genius of Light) |
| Date | 1808 |
| Accession | A518 |
| Period | Neoclassical |
| Medium | Plaster |
| Record | https://kataloget.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/en/A518 |
| Artist | Bertel Thorvaldsen |
| Place | Thorvaldsens Museum |