rodin - Royal Academy of Arts

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‘I place the model in such a way
that it stands out against the
background and so that the light
falls on this profile. I execute it,
and move both my turntable
and that of the model, so that I
can see another profile.Then I
turn them again, and gradually
work my way around the figure.’
RODIN
Republic created a demand for sculptural monuments that offered
some sense of consolation to the nation. Rodin’s figure was originally
called The Vanquished, and he began work with a Belgian soldier,
Augustus Neyt, as his model. He had developed a system of modelling
that depended on recording a clear outline of the profile of a figure
seen from as many angles as was felt necessary.
Rodin interrupted work on his figure by making a trip to Italy in
early 1876.There he saw not only antique sculpture but the work of
Donatello (1386–1466), Michelangelo (1475–1564) and other Italian
sculptors. Recalling his experience of Michelangelo’s Medici Tombs he
said ‘we notice that his sculpture expresses the painful withdrawal of
the being into himself, restless energy.’This was in contrast to the
‘quietude, grace, balance, reason’ of antique art.
Originally conceiving the sculpture with a spear in the raised
arm to suggest a vanquished soldier sensing the meaning of defeat,
Rodin removed this accessory shortly before showing the work in
Brussels. Deprived of this clue to its meaning, a critic asked:‘can this
be a statue of a sleep walker?’ For its showing in Paris Rodin
changed the title, making reference to the classical third stage
of man’s development.
Cat. 11 The pose, with arm raised to head, owes something to
Michelangelo’s Dying Slave in the Louvre, but with the weight firmly
on his left foot the figure has a classical balance and poise.What is
remarkable is the supple and smoothly modelled transitions of the
various parts of the body, like the feeling of the rib cage giving way to
the stomach and then to the gentle curve of the belly. Neyt wrote that
‘Rodin did not want any exaggerated muscle, he wanted naturalness’ –
a naturalness that is brought to life by the way in which the delicately
moulded surfaces reflect the light in a discontinuous fashion.
How does Rodin create a sense of imminent movement?
Given that the best points of view are from the front and to the spectator’s
right, why might Rodin have removed the spear?
The Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), who was briefly
Rodin’s secretary, wrote most sensitively about the emotional qualities
of his sculpture.‘That which was expressed in the face, that pain of a
heavy awakening and at the same time the longing for that awakening,
was written on the smallest part of this body. Every part was a mouth
that spoke a language of its own.’
Critics at the Salon were less acute, referring to ‘a curious atelier
study with a very pretentious name.’The most damning accusation
claimed that the figure was a cast from life. Rodin protested vigorously,
ordering photographs of Neyt in the pose so comparisons could be
made, along with written statements of the time involved, and even an
actual cast. In one sense the furore attracted attention to the unknown
thirty-seven-year-old and brought him supporters as well as detractors.
THE GATES OF HELL
Rodin’s problems over The Age of Bronze had one marvellous
consequence. Edmund Turquet, a member of the committee
investigating the charge of casting from life, had been made Undersecretary
for Fine Arts in 1879. Early in the following year he discussed
with Rodin the possible commission of a set of monumental doors for
the proposed Museum of Decorative Art. Rodin suggested a theme
based on the Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s (1265–1321) Inferno that
would be expressed through many small figures in low relief. Rodin had
been encouraged to read poetry at the Petit Ecole and Dante had
already exerted a profound influence on French Romantic artists. His
proposal was accepted and in July of 1880 he moved into a
government studio at the Dépôt des Marbres on the rue de
l’Université and began work on a project that completely changed his
way of making sculpture and whose influence would last for the rest of
his life.
The Inferno is the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy, a description
of hell seen as a series of descending circles in which different
categories of crimes and their eternal punishments are illustrated
through his encounters with individual sinners. It is uncertain whether
Rodin intended to reflect the stories and structure of the Inferno or
rather to conjure up the words of Dante’s guide, the Roman poet Virgil
(70–19 BC):
‘Through me you go into the city of weeping;
Through me you go into eternal pain;
Through me you go among the lost people.’
In the end Rodin used only two identifiable groupings,
the adulterous lovers Paolo and Francesca (The Kiss), and
Count Ugolino, betrayer of Pisa, starved into committing
cannibalism on his sons and grandsons. Ugolino can be
seen in fig. 1, one of a series of imaginative drawings in
which Rodin explored ‘the spirit of this remarkable poet’,
whose expression he felt ‘is always primitive and
sculptural.’ Using pencil, followed by Indian ink to
strengthen the outlines and create a sense of mass,
Rodin adds gouache to emphasise the sculptural effect
of raking light. Dealing with themes of anguish, struggle
and confinement, these drawings frequently have a
sense of claustrophobic intensity as Rodin explores
a vocabulary of gesture and form, that while not directly
related to individual sculptures, helped to influence the
overall conception. But, as he told a journalist in 1900:
‘I realised that my drawings were too far removed
from reality. I started all over again and worked from
life with models.’
Rodin was financially free to employ as many models
as he liked, and they were encouraged to roam the
studio, taking up poses while Rodin modelled in clay
those that caught his imagination. He frequently stated
that ‘Nature’ was the source of his inspiration, but at the
Fig.1
Ugolino, also called Ugolino First Day,
c.1880
Graphite, pen, brown wash and
gouache on cream-coloured paper
19.3 x 12 cm
Musée Rodin, Paris/Meudon, D. 9393
Photo © Musée Rodin/Jean de Calan
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