拍品專文
One of Rodin's most daring works, Iris, messagère des Dieux evolved out of studies for the sculptor's second project for the Victor Hugo monument. Intended to be a personification of Glory, it initially descended from above and hovered over Victor Hugo. The earliest and smallest study has a head which was eliminated when the figure was enlarged by Lebossé and exhibited independently. In an article on the Victor Hugo monument, J.M. Roos wrote:
The winged Iris crowns the monument in a highly unconventional way...Iris grasps her right foot in her right hand and opens her thighs in a pose of candid, aggressive sexuality. The eroticism implicit in the earlier Muses explodes here in a blunt gesture that has little precedent in the history of Western art. (J.M. Roos, "Rodin's Monument to Victor Hugo: Art and Politics in the Third Republic," The Art Bulletin, Dec., 1986, vol. LXVIII, no. 4, New York, pp. 654-655)
Through his friendship with Isadora Duncan, Rodin had become absorbed with movement; this is one of his many works from the early 1890's that suggests the abandoned poses of modern dance. Although it is just as likely that a professional studio model posed for this sculpture, it has often been said that a cancan dancer served as Rodin's model. During the 1890's the work was among the most controversial that could be seen in Rodin's studio, but by 1914, he included a modified version of it in a large group of works which he donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The winged Iris crowns the monument in a highly unconventional way...Iris grasps her right foot in her right hand and opens her thighs in a pose of candid, aggressive sexuality. The eroticism implicit in the earlier Muses explodes here in a blunt gesture that has little precedent in the history of Western art. (J.M. Roos, "Rodin's Monument to Victor Hugo: Art and Politics in the Third Republic," The Art Bulletin, Dec., 1986, vol. LXVIII, no. 4, New York, pp. 654-655)
Through his friendship with Isadora Duncan, Rodin had become absorbed with movement; this is one of his many works from the early 1890's that suggests the abandoned poses of modern dance. Although it is just as likely that a professional studio model posed for this sculpture, it has often been said that a cancan dancer served as Rodin's model. During the 1890's the work was among the most controversial that could be seen in Rodin's studio, but by 1914, he included a modified version of it in a large group of works which he donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum.