Editing Bertel Thorvaldsen (section)

==Early life and education==
[[File:Thorvaldsen som ung.jpg|right|230px|thumb|Self-portrait by Thorvaldsen while he was a student at the Royal Academy of Arts]]
[[File:Princess Wilhelmine, Duchess of Sagan by Bertel Thorvaldsen 1818, Albertinum, Dresden.jpg|thumb|[[Princess Wilhelmine, Duchess of Sagan]], by Bertel Thorvaldsen 1818, Albertinum, Dresden]]
Thorvaldsen was born in [[Copenhagen]] in 1770 (according to some accounts, in 1768), the son of Gottskálk Þorvaldsson, an [[Iceland]]er who had settled in Denmark.  His father was a wood-carver at a ship yard, where he made decorative carvings for large ships and was the early source of influence on his son Bertel's development as a sculptor and on his choice of career. Thorvaldsen's mother was Karen Dagnes (her surname sometimes is reported as Grønlund), a [[Jutland]]ic peasant girl. His birth certificate and baptismal records have never been found, and the only existing record is of his confirmation in 1787.<ref>See the confirmation certificate at the [http://arkivet.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/documents/m29I,nr.5 ''Thorvaldsens Museum Archives'']</ref> Thorvaldsen had claimed descent from [[Snorri Thorfinnsson]], the first European born in [[Americas|America]].<ref>Paul Henri Mallet, Thomas Percy, I. A. Blackwell, Sir Walter Scott, [https://archive.org/details/northernantiqui01scotgoog  ''Northern Antiquities''], [[Harvard University Press]]</ref>

Thorvaldsen's childhood in Copenhagen was humble.  His father had a drinking habit that slowed his career.<ref>Just Mathias Thiele, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Mordaunt Roger Barnard. 1865. ''The Life of Thorvaldsen''. Chapman and Hall pp. 3–4</ref> Nothing is known of Thorvaldsen's early schooling, and he may have been schooled entirely at home. He never became good at writing, and he never acquired much of the knowledge of fine culture that was expected from an artist.<ref>Just Mathias Thiele, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Mordaunt Roger Barnard. 1865. ''The Life of Thorvaldsen''. Chapman and Hall p.8</ref>

In 1781, by the help of some friends, eleven-year-old Thorvaldsen was admitted to Copenhagen's [[Royal Danish Academy of Art]] (''Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi''), first as a draftsman, and from 1786 at the modeling school. At night he would assist his father with wood carving. Among his professors were [[Nicolai Abildgaard]] and [[Johannes Wiedewelt]], who are both likely influences for his later neo-classicist style.

At the Academy he was highly praised for his works. In 1793, he won several prizes, from silver to gold, for a [[relief]] of [[St. Peter]] healing a crippled beggar. He was consequently granted a Royal stipend, enabling him to complete his studies in Rome. Leaving Copenhagen on 30 August on the [[frigate]] ''Thetis'', he landed in [[Palermo]] in January 1797 and traveled to [[Naples]], where he studied for a month before making his entry to Rome on 8 March 1797. Since the date of his birth had never been recorded, he celebrated this day as his "Roman birthday" for the rest of his life.