“A gift to the king.” That’s how the Hestebetvinger Sculpture came to be here. It is an equestrian statue. This statue portrays King Frederick V of Denmark.
Welcome. We are standing before the magnificent Hestebetvinger Sculpture. It graces the center of Amalienborg Square in Copenhagen.
The four symmetrical wings of Amalienborg Palace perfectly frame this square. The Hestebetvinger Sculpture shows the king in classic attire. He is crowned with laurels. His hand is outstretched. He holds a baton.
The Danish East India Company commissioned it. Jacques Saly designed it in Neoclassical style in 1768. It was cast in bronze in 1771.
The Hestebetvinger Sculpture exudes dignity and tranquility. This is typical of Danish monarch representations. People consider it one of the notable equestrian monuments of its time.
Adam Gottlob Moltke commissioned the Hestebetvinger Sculpture. He was the head of the Asiatic Company. Moltke offered it as a gift to the king. The government chose the sculptor. Count Johan Hartvig Ernst Bernstorff contacted Joachim Wasserschlebe. He was the Danish Legation secretary at the French Court in Paris. He had to find a suitable French sculptor.
Edmé Bouchardon declined. He suggested Saly. Saly wanted a significant sum for the model. He also wanted free housing in Copenhagen. The government signed the contract with Saly in spring 1752. Saly didn’t arrive in Denmark until October 8, 1753. Conflicts with other projects delayed him. He brought his parents, two sisters and at least one assistant. Work began that year.
Saly showed King Frederick V the first sketch in 1754. The king approved a sketch for the whole monument in August 1755. Saly then thoroughly studied horses from the king’s stalls. This resulted in a small model. He showed it to the king in November 1758. Casts of this model are in the Academy’s collection and the Danish National Gallery.
Saly worked on the large model from 1761 to 1763. He presented the plaster cast to Academy members on February 3, 1764. The king also saw this model. Preparations for the bronze casting took four more years. Frenchman Pierre Gors did the casting on March 2, 1768. The year 1768 is the statue’s official completion date.
Pierre Gors cast the bronze. It weighed about 22 tons. It then took three years to finish the work. The inauguration was in 1771. Including the base, the statue reaches almost 12 meters. Saly said he was inspired by the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. He was also inspired by Giambologna’s equestrian Henry IV on the Pont Neuf in Paris. Edmé Bouchardon’s Louis XV was also an inspiration.
Saly first modeled a lifelike portrait of the King. He made small bronze castings. Frederik V approved the last one in 1755. Saly studied horses in the royal stables. In 1758, he prepared a model about one meter high. The king applauded it. Copies exist in Copenhagen’s museums. The King’s portrait is lost. It depicted him as a Roman emperor.
Johan Martin Preisler made a large engraving of the equestrian statue in 1769. It commemorated its completion. The Danish Asiatic Company cast two medallions. Johan Henrik Wolff made one. Daniel Jensen Adzer made the other. The base was delivered first in 1770. The unveiling took place at Amalienborg Palace on August 1, 1771. This was five years after the King’s death in 1766. It still commands the site. The statue’s base was renovated in 1997–1998.
The committee for the visual arts pointed out something interesting. The statue took 14 years to complete. It cost more than Amalienborg’s four palatial buildings. It was the jewel of that exquisite environment.
It has been preserved unaltered. Many similar bronzes were melted down for weapons. The painting Amalienborg Square, Copenhagen by Vilhelm Hammershøi places the statue in a central role.
It took a very long time to create this equestrian statue. It took no less than 19 years. The commissioning of the statue to Saly took place in 1752. Saly arrived with his family in 1753. A year later, Saly showed the king a first design. The king approved a sketch for the whole monument in 1755.
The sculptor presented a plaster model of the statue to the king in 1764. Another Frenchman carried out the casting in 1768. The base took two years. The unveiling of the statue was in 1771. Saly left Copenhagen a few years later. He was unsatisfied with his financial negotiations. The statue was restored in 1998.