Christ and Mary Magdalene, Auguste Rodin, 1908
Auguste Rodin, ritrattoAuguste RodinFrancia, 1840–1917

Christ and Mary Magdalene

1908 · Sculpture · 109.2 × 85.1 cm

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In this three-and-a-half foot marble sculpture, a dying man nailed to rock is mourned by a naked woman kneeling in front of him. Auguste Rodin titled this piece *Christ and Mary Magdalene*, but he also called it *Prometheus and the Oceanid* and *The Genius and Pity*, opening up the composition to multiple biblical, mythical, and secular associations. These themes, mixing the sacred and the profane, relate to Rodin's conception of the creative life, which in his view inevitably involved suffering and martyrdom. The compelling strength of this work results from the stark contrast between the highly polished surfaces of the naked flesh and the surrounding rough-hewn marble.

Leggi

Rodin admired Michelangelo's sculptures during his visit to Florence in 1876 and the artist's influence on Rodin can be seen not only in the unfinished parts of the piece but also in the dramatically contorted female body. In order to keep up with the high demand for his work, Rodin routinely appointed talented marble carvers to realize his compositions in stone. This sculpture was entrusted to Rodin's primary marble carver Victor Peter, a well-regarded artist himself, though Rodin oversaw the process, even drawing on photographs to indicate how he wanted details altered. Unlike most of Rodin's works, this sculpture was never cast in bronze and only one other marble version exists.

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Scheda

Numero di inventario
2014.32

In catalogo

Fonti

Nella vita di Auguste Rodin

Tutta la vita
  1. 1890s–1900s

    Young sculptors in Rodin's studio

    His income let him hire gifted young sculptors, among them Antoine Bourdelle, Charles Despiau, Jules Desbois, François Pompon and Aristide Maillol. Constantin Brancusi left after two months, convinced that nothing grows under a big tree.

  2. 1900s

    Portraits of the famous and the rich

    Rodin began to receive regular commissions for portraits; his clients included Bernard Shaw, Gustav Mahler, Georges Clemenceau, the Argentine president Sarmiento, the chemist Berthelot and the philanthropist Bertha Palmer. Clemenceau was displeased: he thought the portrait looked like a “Mongol general”.

  3. 1905–1906

    Rilke as Rodin's secretary

    In 1905–1906 the sculptor's private secretary was the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who later wrote an admiring monograph on Rodin.

  4. 1906 · Premio

    honorary doctorate of the University of Glasgow

  5. 1907 · Premio

    Honorary doctor of the University of Oxford

  6. 1908

    Moves into the Hôtel Biron

    Rilke invited Rodin to the eighteenth-century mansion where he rented rooms; Rodin liked it so much that he took the ground floor, moved his studio there and lived there for his last years.

Tutte le opere

Nella stessa sala · Museum West Pavilion, Gallery W103, Getty Museum

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