Artist:
Auguste Rodin
Title:
Ombre
Year:
1904
Adress:
Jardin des Tuileries
www.pba-lille.fr:
Cette sculpture fait partie du groupe des trois ombres surmontant le fronton de la Porte de l'Enfer, illustrant l'un des themes importants de la Divine Comedie de Dante. Cette porte fut commandee par l'Etat en 1880 pour etre celle du futur musee des Arts Decoratifs mais ne fut jamais livree.
Les gestes excessifs, les muscles saillants, les mains et les pieds enormes ne suffisent pas a retenir l'accablement qui rabat la tete vers le sol ou tout converge.
l'Ombre semble etre une variante simplifiee d’Adam. La tete, plus courbee, forme une ligne presque horizontale avec les epaules et le bras gauche se detache vers l'avant au lieu de barrer le torse. La reunion des trois figures identiques decoule peut-etre d’une methode de travail de l'artiste qui souhaitait disposer ainsi de la vue instantanee d’une meme oeuvre sous des profils differents. Les Ombres, tres certainement sous la forme d’exemplaires separes, seront presentees pour la premiere fois a la galerie Georges Petit en 1889.
www.mba-lyon.fr:
l'Enfer, poeme redige au XIVe siecle par Dante Alighieri, relate la traversee par le poete, mene par l'auteur latin Virgile, de neuf cercles dans lesquels il rencontre les damnes. Ce texte fondateur de la litterature italienne fascine les artistes du XIXe siecle et Rodin tout particulierement, pour qui il va constituer l'une des inspirations conductrices de son travail.
Cette oeuvre illustrant Adam, l'un des damnes, est au depart conçue a une plus petite echelle pour etre placee en trois exemplaires au sommet de la Porte de l'Enfer, realisation majeure destinee a repondre a une commande de l'etat pour orner l'entree d’un musee des arts decoratifs a Paris. l'artiste decide ensuite de lui donner une vie propre en exposant quelques annees plus tard un modele en plâtre plus grand que nature, dont la ville de Lyon lui acquiert un tirage en bronze en 1904.
Selon la volonte de l'auteur, cette sculpture ne possede pas de mains. Cet inachevement novateur est caracteristique du travail de Rodin, qui ne recherche pas un rendu realiste de la nature mais privilegie l'expressivite. Craignant cependant que cette mutilation soit mal comprise du public, le sculpteur decidera d’ajouter des mains a tous les tirages en bronze de cette sculpture realises posterieurement a celui-ci, qui porte temoignage de l'etat originel de l'oeuvre tel que l'artiste l'avait conçue.
Translation
www.pba-lille.fr (sur une sculpture situee a Lyon):
This sculpture is part of the three shadows group surmounting the pediment of the Gates of Hell, illustrating one of the important themes of Dante's Divine Comedy. This gate was commissioned by the state in 1880 to be one of the future Museum of Decorative Arts but was never delivered.
Excessive gestures, bulging muscles, hands and huge feet are not enough to hold the dejection that folds head towards the ground where everything converges.
Shadow seems to be a simplified version of Adam. The head, bent over, form an almost horizontal line with the shoulders and left arm detaches forward instead of barring the torso. The meeting of three identical figures may be the result of a working method of the artist who wished to have and instant view of the same work under different profiles. Shadows, certainly in the form of separate copies will be presented for the first time at the Georges Petit gallery in 1889.
www.mba-lyon.fr:
Hell, written in the fourteenth century poem by Dante Alighieri, recounts the crossing by the poet, led by the Latin author Virgil, nine circles in which he meets the damned. This founding text of Italian literature has fascinated artists of the nineteenth century and especially Rodin, for whom it will constitute one of the conductive inspirations of his work.
This work depicting Adam, one of the damned, is initially designed on a smaller scale to be placed in triplicate on top of the Gates of Hell, major achievement designed to meet an order of the State to decorate the entrance of a museum of decorative arts in Paris. The artist then decides to give her own life by exposing a few years later a plaster model larger than life, the city of Lyon acquires him a bronze cast in 1904.
According to the will of the author, this sculpture does not have hands. This innovative feature is unfinished work of Rodin, who is not seeking a realistic rendering of nature but prefers expressiveness. Fearing, however, that this mutilation is misunderstood public, the sculptor decides to add hands to all prints bronze of this sculpture made after this one, which bears witness to the original state of the work as the the artist had conceived. < www.musee-rodin.fr (about a sculture located in Lyon):
In his design for The Gates of Hell, dating from 1881, Rodin wanted to place Adam and Eve either side of The Gates as pendants. He later described how he had started to model a large female figure when he had had to stop because his sitter, who was pregnant, could no longer pose for him. He did not exhibit this unfinished statue of Eve until 1899, by which time he felt bold enough to show his works in a fragmentary or incomplete state.
The rough surface of the skin, the lack of detail and the trace of the metal armature still visible on the right foot all attest to the fact that this was a work in progress that Rodin had decided to retain.
In the meantime, he had completed a small version of Eve,which was exhibited in 1882 and greeted with enthusiasm. The sensuality of her body, now very smooth, in strong contrast with the modesty of the gesture she makes by lowering her head and crossing her arms, made it extremely popular. Large numbers of this statue were produced in bronze, marble and terracotta.
www.metmuseum.org:
The Gates of Hell, a monumental portal for a projected Musee des Arts Decoratifs to be built on the site of what is now the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, was Rodin's first commission from the French government. In a letter to the Ministry of Fine Arts dated October 20, 1881, Rodin wrote:"…this door will be 4m 50 by 3m 50 in size, and comprise, besides bas reliefs, many figures almost in the round. In addition, two colossal figures will stand at either side of the gate…" A sketchbook in the Musee Rodin in Paris contains a study for The Gates flanked by standing figures. The two figures were not original to Rodin's plan, and they vanished quite early in its evolution, but they survive in the form of the larger than life-sized Adam and Eve. Their meaning is evident from their original context: on one side, Adam, the first man, slowly and with difficulty roused to life; on the other, Eve, in her shame, the source of mankind's fall from grace.
Cette sculpture fait partie du groupe des trois ombres surmontant le fronton de la Porte de l'Enfer, illustrant l'un des themes importants de la Divine Comedie de Dante. Cette porte fut commandee par l'Etat en 1880 pour etre celle du futur musee des Arts Decoratifs mais ne fut jamais livree.
Les gestes excessifs, les muscles saillants, les mains et les pieds enormes ne suffisent pas a retenir l'accablement qui rabat la tete vers le sol ou tout converge.
l'Ombre semble etre une variante simplifiee d’Adam. La tete, plus courbee, forme une ligne presque horizontale avec les epaules et le bras gauche se detache vers l'avant au lieu de barrer le torse. La reunion des trois figures identiques decoule peut-etre d’une methode de travail de l'artiste qui souhaitait disposer ainsi de la vue instantanee d’une meme oeuvre sous des profils differents. Les Ombres, tres certainement sous la forme d’exemplaires separes, seront presentees pour la premiere fois a la galerie Georges Petit en 1889.
www.mba-lyon.fr:
l'Enfer, poeme redige au XIVe siecle par Dante Alighieri, relate la traversee par le poete, mene par l'auteur latin Virgile, de neuf cercles dans lesquels il rencontre les damnes. Ce texte fondateur de la litterature italienne fascine les artistes du XIXe siecle et Rodin tout particulierement, pour qui il va constituer l'une des inspirations conductrices de son travail.
Cette oeuvre illustrant Adam, l'un des damnes, est au depart conçue a une plus petite echelle pour etre placee en trois exemplaires au sommet de la Porte de l'Enfer, realisation majeure destinee a repondre a une commande de l'etat pour orner l'entree d’un musee des arts decoratifs a Paris. l'artiste decide ensuite de lui donner une vie propre en exposant quelques annees plus tard un modele en plâtre plus grand que nature, dont la ville de Lyon lui acquiert un tirage en bronze en 1904.
Selon la volonte de l'auteur, cette sculpture ne possede pas de mains. Cet inachevement novateur est caracteristique du travail de Rodin, qui ne recherche pas un rendu realiste de la nature mais privilegie l'expressivite. Craignant cependant que cette mutilation soit mal comprise du public, le sculpteur decidera d’ajouter des mains a tous les tirages en bronze de cette sculpture realises posterieurement a celui-ci, qui porte temoignage de l'etat originel de l'oeuvre tel que l'artiste l'avait conçue.
Translation
www.pba-lille.fr (sur une sculpture situee a Lyon):
This sculpture is part of the three shadows group surmounting the pediment of the Gates of Hell, illustrating one of the important themes of Dante's Divine Comedy. This gate was commissioned by the state in 1880 to be one of the future Museum of Decorative Arts but was never delivered.
Excessive gestures, bulging muscles, hands and huge feet are not enough to hold the dejection that folds head towards the ground where everything converges.
Shadow seems to be a simplified version of Adam. The head, bent over, form an almost horizontal line with the shoulders and left arm detaches forward instead of barring the torso. The meeting of three identical figures may be the result of a working method of the artist who wished to have and instant view of the same work under different profiles. Shadows, certainly in the form of separate copies will be presented for the first time at the Georges Petit gallery in 1889.
www.mba-lyon.fr:
Hell, written in the fourteenth century poem by Dante Alighieri, recounts the crossing by the poet, led by the Latin author Virgil, nine circles in which he meets the damned. This founding text of Italian literature has fascinated artists of the nineteenth century and especially Rodin, for whom it will constitute one of the conductive inspirations of his work.
This work depicting Adam, one of the damned, is initially designed on a smaller scale to be placed in triplicate on top of the Gates of Hell, major achievement designed to meet an order of the State to decorate the entrance of a museum of decorative arts in Paris. The artist then decides to give her own life by exposing a few years later a plaster model larger than life, the city of Lyon acquires him a bronze cast in 1904.
According to the will of the author, this sculpture does not have hands. This innovative feature is unfinished work of Rodin, who is not seeking a realistic rendering of nature but prefers expressiveness. Fearing, however, that this mutilation is misunderstood public, the sculptor decides to add hands to all prints bronze of this sculpture made after this one, which bears witness to the original state of the work as the the artist had conceived. < www.musee-rodin.fr (about a sculture located in Lyon):
In his design for The Gates of Hell, dating from 1881, Rodin wanted to place Adam and Eve either side of The Gates as pendants. He later described how he had started to model a large female figure when he had had to stop because his sitter, who was pregnant, could no longer pose for him. He did not exhibit this unfinished statue of Eve until 1899, by which time he felt bold enough to show his works in a fragmentary or incomplete state.
The rough surface of the skin, the lack of detail and the trace of the metal armature still visible on the right foot all attest to the fact that this was a work in progress that Rodin had decided to retain.
In the meantime, he had completed a small version of Eve,which was exhibited in 1882 and greeted with enthusiasm. The sensuality of her body, now very smooth, in strong contrast with the modesty of the gesture she makes by lowering her head and crossing her arms, made it extremely popular. Large numbers of this statue were produced in bronze, marble and terracotta.
www.metmuseum.org:
The Gates of Hell, a monumental portal for a projected Musee des Arts Decoratifs to be built on the site of what is now the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, was Rodin's first commission from the French government. In a letter to the Ministry of Fine Arts dated October 20, 1881, Rodin wrote:"…this door will be 4m 50 by 3m 50 in size, and comprise, besides bas reliefs, many figures almost in the round. In addition, two colossal figures will stand at either side of the gate…" A sketchbook in the Musee Rodin in Paris contains a study for The Gates flanked by standing figures. The two figures were not original to Rodin's plan, and they vanished quite early in its evolution, but they survive in the form of the larger than life-sized Adam and Eve. Their meaning is evident from their original context: on one side, Adam, the first man, slowly and with difficulty roused to life; on the other, Eve, in her shame, the source of mankind's fall from grace.