Action HeroesDonatello, Michelangelo, Cellini,

Bernini, Canova….what next?

DavidDonatello1430bronze

DavidMichelangelo1501-1504marble

DavidBernini1623-1624marble

Benvenuto CelliniPerseus 1545-54

Antonio CanovaPerseus with the Head of Medusa1804-1806

Auguste RodinThe Age of Bronze1875

Auguste Rodin

You already know him….

Auguste Rodin

The Thinker1880

Rodin has made the work of the mind palpable.

DonatelloSt. John the Baptist1457

Lorenzo GhibertiSt. John the Baptist1412-1417

BerniniJohn the Baptist1612-1615

MichelangeloDying Slave1513

In 1875, Rodin went to Rome to study the classical models and the work of Michelangelo.

Auguste RodinSt. John the Baptist1878

The Kiss1885-1896

The Burghers of Calais 1895

“In 1347 King Edward III had besieged the French town of Calais for nearly a year, and by early August its starved population could not hold out any longer. Edward III then told the people of Calais that they would all be killed, unless six of its citizens presented themselves to the King, dressed only in their shirts, with a rope around their necks, and with the keys to the city in their hands. Rodin centered The Burghers of Calais around a modern version of heroism that can be termed ‘civic heroism', which draws on the collective and civic courage of the average person, rather than on the physical courage of the single and outstanding individual. Or, to put it differently, Rodin turned the statue into a democratic exemplum” ( Richard Swedberg in Theory, Culture and Society, 2005).

The Burghers of Calais 1895

Honoré de Balzac 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850

Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multifaceted characters, who are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. His writing influenced many subsequent novelists.

Auguste RodinMonument to Balzac 1891–1898

“As form followed form, Rodin’s vision slowly grew. And at last he saw Balzac: a substantial figure, striding powerfully forwards, its heaviness counteracted by the fall of the coat. The hair weighed down the powerful neck, and from the mass of hair there gazed a face intoxicated with its own vision, a face that boiled with creative energy: the fact of an elemental force. This was Balzac in in all the fullness of his productive powers, the founder of generations, the waster of fates…This was how Rodin saw Balzac in the moment of intense concentration and tragic exaggeration, and this is how he created him. The image did not fade: it came into being.”

--Rainer Maria Rilke

Auguste RodinMonument to Balzac 1891–1898

Edward Steichen Midnight - Rodin's Balzac 1908

Camille Claudel

“My very dearest down on both knees before your beautiful body which I embrace.” Letter from Rodin to Camille Claudel (end of 1884 - beginning of 1885).

Camille ClaudelThe Implorer1892

Camille ClaudelLa Valse (The Waltz)1892

Camille Claudel

La Vague