Ekko (1888)
The most famous bronze girl in Copenhagen is, of course, The Little Mermaid, the sculpture of which celebrates her one hundreth birthday this year. This week Triple P has been back in the capital of Denmark and discovered this fine bronze in the Rosenborg Castle Gardens, the oldest park in the city, while en route to the National Gallery.
This statue is by Aksel Hansen (1853-1933) who started his sculpting career as a wood carver and stone mason. He was later influenced by Art Nouveau which is apparent in his Ekko figure. There is another copy of this figure in his birthplace, Odense. Hansen has really captured the look of a young nymph and her current position has her emerging from a hedge, which works quite well.
In Greek mythology Echo was a mountain nymph who would tell stories to Zeus' wife Hera to distract her from the fact that Zeus was ravishing all the other mountain nymphs while she was listening to Echo. On discovering this Hera took away Echo's ability to speak except for being able to repeat what someone else had just said. Echo fell in love with Narcissus but he spurned her leading to her withering away. In another version of the story she is pursued by the god Pan but ends up being killed by shepherds as she tries to escape him. Yet another version has her bearing Pan two children.
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