rodin museum

today i went to the rodin museum. it was fantastic. they've got some nice gardens with sculptures spread throughout, which is nice, plus a gallery which is just the right size. they also have some really famous paintings by other people there too, just kind of around: renoir, van gogh, monet, etc.

mostly, though, it is a museum very centered around rodin. not everything is great, but some are truly spectacular. there are the well known ones, like the penseur (thinker), the burghers of calais, and a number of others, but some of his less famous ones are even better, i think. throughout his sculptures, there is a clear dynamic between the weight of conscience and the pull of desire. there's lots of very passionate sculptures, lots of people embracing, kissing, etc., but they are all a little dark.

his other sculptures are even darker, but still often very sensual. one of these is the caryatid à la pierre (the fallen caryatid with stone), which is of a caryatid (a woman sculpted into a pillar) who has fallen under her burden. it plays a part in one of my favorite books, robert heinlein's stranger in a strange land. it was very nice to see it in person.

he shows desespoir (dispair, but literally lack of hope) very well. his subjects are very torn between their urges and their morality. there was a model of a work never cast called la tour du travail (the tower of work), which is a spiral tower leading up to two angels at the top.

rodin does angels incredibly well. most of his sculptures are of bodies, so their bodies are very human, but their wings are incredible–very beautifully feathered, with gorgeous lines, not that show motion like bernini, but that are just beautiful for their pure shape. a few times he has a similar effect with women's hair blowing over their faces. truly amazing.

one gorgeous little one was his Derniere vision (Last Sight), which is a piece of marble with a woman's face in it, with a hand around it, and a mans face with a hand over his eyes, but mostly it is just rough marble, like they are fading into nothingness. very nice.

many of his sculptures are very dante-esque, including the one that is by far my favorite, Le Porte de l'enfer (the gates of hell). it is outside, huge, bronze, and fronts what looks like a huge marble tomb. the gates themselves, though, are magnificent. they are covered with sculptures of people of all sorts as they descend to hell, including miniatures of some of his other works, including the thinker, paolo and francesca, the fallen angel, etc. it is truly incredible; you could spend all day looking at its scenes and shadows.

tomorrow i'm going to see the courbet exhibit at the grand palais. more on that later.