拍品專文
In contrast to his monumental public works and commissions, Rodin modeled in clay many small sculptures of bathers, acrobats and dancers. These works, created mostly for private use, filled the basement of the sculptor's studio at his Villa des Brillants in Meudon, and were not cast until after his death.
These sculptures, which Rodin called his "snakes," were the result of serious play and improvisation. They were not always made directly from the model. Even when conversing with visitors, the artist obsessively worked the clay, forming it into torsos often smaller than his hands. He would make quick clay sketches for friends to demonstrate his knowledge of the structure of the figure in different periods of art history. Often while his models were walking about the studio, Rodin made impressions of their movements without removing his eyes from their bodies. (A. E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, [Museum of Modern Art exhibition catalogue], p. 141)
Chief among these "improvisations" are some of Rodin's most radical works, such as the series of seven Dance Steps and the present sculpture.
It is small, improvised works that are most emancipated from references either to anatomy or to earlier prototypes in art and are the most revealing of decisions made during the work process. Modeling on a less strenuous scale, with the play of wrists and fingers unimpeded, the sculptor could respond without reflection to the life of fancy and instinct that lay in his fingertips. A superb craftsman, possessed of marvelous dexterity and endless tricks by which he could instantaneously and succinctly transpose into clay his most elusive ideas or feelings, Rodin trusted his eyes as the final arbiters of esthetic rightness. Although his surfaces, which were the essence of his art, became less literal anatomically, they are never abstract or without rough correspondence to the human body. However cursory or contorted, the "snakes" are always plausible. (Ibid., pp. 144-145)
These sculptures, which Rodin called his "snakes," were the result of serious play and improvisation. They were not always made directly from the model. Even when conversing with visitors, the artist obsessively worked the clay, forming it into torsos often smaller than his hands. He would make quick clay sketches for friends to demonstrate his knowledge of the structure of the figure in different periods of art history. Often while his models were walking about the studio, Rodin made impressions of their movements without removing his eyes from their bodies. (A. E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, [Museum of Modern Art exhibition catalogue], p. 141)
Chief among these "improvisations" are some of Rodin's most radical works, such as the series of seven Dance Steps and the present sculpture.
It is small, improvised works that are most emancipated from references either to anatomy or to earlier prototypes in art and are the most revealing of decisions made during the work process. Modeling on a less strenuous scale, with the play of wrists and fingers unimpeded, the sculptor could respond without reflection to the life of fancy and instinct that lay in his fingertips. A superb craftsman, possessed of marvelous dexterity and endless tricks by which he could instantaneously and succinctly transpose into clay his most elusive ideas or feelings, Rodin trusted his eyes as the final arbiters of esthetic rightness. Although his surfaces, which were the essence of his art, became less literal anatomically, they are never abstract or without rough correspondence to the human body. However cursory or contorted, the "snakes" are always plausible. (Ibid., pp. 144-145)