From Benediction to Entreaty

It is recorded of Thorwaldsen, that in his great statue of Christ, which now stands in the “Lady Church” of Copenhagen, he had wanted to achieve the intended expression of benignity by making Christ’s hands upraised as if for benediction. The effect was sublime, conjoined as it was with the compassionate sweetness of His kingly countenance.

But the soul of the sculptor was not satisfied. At last, as if by a sudden flash of genius, he depressed the arms of the clay model into a posture of yearning entreaty. And so the statue was wrought, an image to every hushed beholder of the Redeemer’s appeal, in perfect sympathy conjoined with royal might, to the woe-stricken race of men.