Lecture 47: Modern Sculpture—Rodin and Brancusi
from Michelangelo’s Dying Slave; the evidence is the raised right arm. In
Rodin’s sculpture, the model was probably held a pole in his left hand as an
aid to posing. When the pole was removed before casting, it gave the hand
an expressive ambiguity.The most important work, or nexus of many works, in Rodin’s career is
The Gates of Hell (1880–1887), which began as a commission for the doors
for a projected Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. Rodin never ¿ nished a
de¿ nitive model for the commission, and the decision was made not to build
the new museum but to install Rodin’s sculpture in a wing of the Louvre,
where it remains. The concept of the Gates evolved slowly. In the end, it was
never completed in any formal sense, nor was it ever cast in Rodin’s lifetime.
Instead, the Gates became the fountainhead of Rodin’s art. The work is ¿ lled
with ¿ gures inspired by Dante’s Inferno.Looking at a full view of the Gates, we see the two sides of the doors, the
overdoor above the lintel, and a broad capstone with three standing ¿ gures.
The door as a whole is À anked by pilasters. The three ¿ gures at the top are
known as the Fates. They seem to be pointing relentlessly downward. Just
below them and below the top lintel is a famous seated ¿ gure. It is known to
us as The Thinker, but on the doors, it is Dante, presiding over his Inferno.To compare, we see a version of The Thinker (n.d.), which was removed from
the door and cast and carved in various sizes. The modeling of the ¿ gure on
the doors was done in 1880 and was 27 inches high. The ¿ gure was enlarged
around 1902–1904. The pose of The Thinker is complex and arti¿ cial, but it
conveys intensity of thought.Returning to the ¿ gures of the Fates, we see that they appear to be three
different male ¿ gures. However, they are actually the same ¿ gure repeated
but in different positions. As a model for the composition of the Gates, Rodin
used Ghiberti’s Baptistery doors in Florence. Like those doors, these were
subdivided into individual panels. Gradually, however, the “walls” between
the panels broke down, allowing the space to À ow through the whole valve.
The ¿ gures also seem to À oat in this uncon¿ ned space. Even the background
seems to be continuously in motion.