Obverse: Portrait of Thorvaldsen in profile.
Reverse: The Genius of Sculpture Set in a Laurel Wreath.
The genius (the guardian spirit) of sculpture on the reverse of the medal is holding the model for Thorvaldsen’s group sculpture Cupid and the Graces (which can be seen in Gallery 3 in the Museum Inv. No. A894), and in his left hand he holds the sculptor’s tools: a hammer and chisel. And set in a general symbol of homage – the laurel wreath – it is naturally an expression for the medal having been made in honour of Thorvaldsen. Gottlieb Goetze spent the 1820s in Rome and was in 1827 admitted to the San Luca Academy, where Thorvaldsen was professor. From 1830, Goetze was a medallist in the Royal Mint in Berlin, and in 1840 he retired to his native town of Suhl in Saxony on account of increasing blindness. Exhibited in Gallery 38 in the Museum.