His ideal springs less from imitation of the antique, or of nature,
than from the workings of his own individual mind--it is the creation
of a fancy seeking forcible effect in singular combinations, rather
than in general principles; therefore hardly fitted to excite lasting
or beneficial influence upon the age. Simplicity and imposing
expression seem to have hitherto formed the principal objects of
his pursuit; but the distinction between the simple and rude, the
powerful and the exaggerated, is not always observed in the labours
of the Dane. His simplicity is sometimes without grace; the
impressive--austere, and without due refinement. The air and contours
of his heads, except, as in the Mercury--an excellent example both of
the beauties and defects of the artist's style--when immediately
derived from antiquity, though grand and vigorous, seldom harmonize in
the principles of these efforts with the majestic regularity of
general nature. The forms, again, are not unfrequently poor, without a
vigorous rendering of the parts, and destitute at times of their just
roundness. These defects may in some measure have arisen from the
early and more frequent practice of the artist in relievos.
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