With good reason, Rodin believed he had the hands of god and he rendered them in marble. I am convinced. They are on display now at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.
It was a revelation to see so many Rodin sculptures in one place. Walking around them, experiencing one after the other in space and realizing how well Rodin played with and accentuated the physical properties of the human form was a sensation. You feel the structure, the balance, the weight, the strength, the beauty, and it is not an illusion. It is three dimensional.
Rodin was commissioned to create a work for the 1889 Paris Exhibition. Rodin chose to reinterpret Dante’s “Inferno” in a bronze door. “The Thinker” was part of that assemblage and was originally entitled “The Poet” after Dante. When this project was canceled due a lack of funds Rodin created models and finished large pieces from the figures. Many of them, including “The Scream” above, are in this show.
The Museum here has a great collection, Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, Giacometti, Golub and Penck but it is all so two dimensional.
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