August Rodin, French - (1840-1917)
Rodin has been appreciated for decades as one of the pre-eminent
Realist sculptors of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century.
Rodin's goal, as he put it, was "to
render inner feelings through muscular movement." He achieved
this aim by joining his profound knowledge of anatomy and movement
with special attention to the body's surfaces, 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." To this end, his detailed modeling
and energetic poses are strikingly vigorous and lifelike...even
one hundred years after they were created.
The Kiss Sculpture was inspired by Dante's
tale of Paolo and Francesca, lovers entwined for eternity in
the Inferno, this statue was initially part of Rodin's Gates
of Hell. Of the many couples sculpted during his tumultuous liaison
with Camille Claudel, The Kiss is the most sensuous. The poet
Rilke compared it to "a sun that rises and floods all with
its light."
One of the original castings of Rodin's
The Kiss resides at The Baltimore Museum of Art. Wrote the poet
Rainer Maria Rilke of this masterpiece: "One has the impression
of seeing the delight of this kiss all over these bodies; it
is like a sun which rises and its light is everywhere."
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