JEAN-BAPTISTE CARPEAUX In France,
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux(1827–1875) combined an
interest in Realism with a love of ancient, Renaissance,
and Baroque sculpture. He based his group Ugolino and
His Children(FIG. 31-31) on a passage in Dante’s In-
ferno (33.58–75) in which Count Ugolino and his four
sons starve to death while shut up in a tower. In Hell,
Ugolino relates to Dante how, in a moment of extreme
despair, he bit both his hands in grief. His children,
thinking he did it because of his hunger, offered him
their own flesh as food. In Carpeaux’s statuary group,
the powerful forms—twisted, intertwined, and densely
concentrated—suggest the self-devouring torment of
frustration and despair that wracks the unfortunate
Ugolino. A careful student of Michelangelo’s male fig-
ures, Carpeaux also said he had the Laocoöngroup (FIG.
5-88) in mind. Certainly, the storm and stress of
Ugolino and His Children recall similar characteristics of
that ancient work. Regardless of these influences, the
sense of vivid reality in the anatomy of Carpeaux’s fig-
ures shows the artist’s interest in study from life.AUGUSTE RODINThe leading French sculptor of
the later 19th century was Auguste Rodin(1840–1917),
who conceived and executed his sculptures with a Real-
ist sensibility. Like Muybridge and Eakins (see Chap-
ter 30), Rodin was fascinated by the human body in
motion (see “Rodin on Movement in Art and Photog-
raphy,” page 845). He was also well aware of the innovations of the
Impressionists. Although color was not a significant factor in Rodin’s
work, the influence of Impressionism is evident in the artist’s abiding
concern for the effect of light on the three-dimensional surface. When
focusing on the human form, he joined his profound knowledge of
anatomy and movement with special attention to the body’s exterior,
saying, “The sculptor must learn to reproduce the surface, which
means all that vibrates on the surface, soul, love, passion, life....
Sculpture is thus the art of hollows and mounds, not of smoothness,
or even polished planes.”^17 Primarily a modeler of pliable material
rather than a carver of hard wood or stone, Rodin worked his surfaces
with fingers sensitive to the subtlest variations of surface, catching the
fugitive play of constantly shifting light on the body. In his studio, he
often would have a model move around in front of him while he mod-
eled sketches with coils of clay.
In Walking Man (FIG. 31-32), a preliminary study for the
sculptor’s Saint John the Baptist Preaching,Rodin succeeded in rep-
resenting the momentary in cast bronze. He portrayed the headless
and armless figure in midstride at the moment when weight is trans-
ferred across the pelvis from the back leg to the front. In addition tocapturing the sense of the transitory, Rodin demonstrated his mas-
tery of realistic detail in his meticulous rendition of muscle, bone,
and tendon.BURGHERS OF CALAIS Rodin also made many nude and
draped studies for each of the figures in one of his most ambitious
works—the life-size group Burghers of Calais (FIG. 31-33). This cast
bronze monument commemorated a heroic episode in the Hundred
Years’ War. During the English siege of Calais, France, in 1347, six of
the city’s leading citizens agreed to offer their lives in return for the
English king’s promise to lift the siege and spare the rest of the popu-
lace. Each of the bedraggled-looking figures is a convincing study of
despair, resignation, or quiet defiance. Rodin enhanced the psychic
effects through his choreographic placement of the group members.
Rather than clustering in a tightly formal composition, the burghers
(middle-class citizens) seem to wander aimlessly. The roughly tex-
tured surfaces add to the pathos of the figures and compel the
viewer’s continued interest. Rodin designed the monument without
the traditional high base in the hope that the citizens of Calais would
be inspired by the sculptural representation of their ancestors stand-844 Chapter 31 EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1870 TO 190031-31Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux,Ugolino and His
Children,1865–1867. Marble, 6 5 high. Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York (Josephine Bay Paul and
C. Michael Paul Foundation, Inc., and the Charles Ulrich
and Josephine Bay Foundation, Inc., gifts, 1967).
Based on Dante’s Inferno,this group represents Ugolino
biting his hands in despair as he and his sons await
death by starvation. The twisted forms suggest the self-
devouring torment of frustration.1 ft.31-31A
CARPEAUX,
The Dance,
1867–1869.
31-32ARODIN,
Gates of Hell,
1880–1900.