拍品專文
The Comité Auguste Rodin under the direction of Jérôme Le Blay will include this work in their forthcoming Rodin Catalogue critique de l'oeuvre sculpté under the number 2015-4726B.
Known as the father of modern sculpture, Auguste Rodin was one of the most influential sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th Century. Born in Paris in 1840, he revolutionised the medium, breaking with tradition by depicting the human figure with an intense vitality, power and beauty. Using mythology, literature and history, as well as his own vivid imagination as his sources, Rodin created figural sculpture that demonstrates the great extremes and depth of human emotion – from anguish and despair, to ecstasy and rapture – with an expressive intensity that was unprecedented at the time and continues to resonate today.
Conceived circa 1881-1882, La Cariatide au vase was considered by critics at the time of its creation to be one of Rodin’s greatest works. With its rich patina and large size, this work demonstrates Rodin’s innovative mastery at capturing not only the beauty of the human form but imparting a psychological depth to the figure before us. Crouching down, the woman is holding a large vase upon her shoulder, her head bent over by its weight. She appears lost in her own world; pensive yet melancholic, as if worn down by the physical burden that she carries upon her. The spiralled, twisted shape of the figure’s body – her crossed arms, curving back and bent legs – not only demonstrates Rodin’s exquisite modelling of the female form, but encourages the viewer to regard her from all angles, each facet, protrusion and shadow heightening the compelling visual beauty of the piece.
La Cariatide au vase was cast by the Musée Rodin. In 1916, the year before his death, Rodin gave to the French nation all of his art and its rights for reproduction and to this day, the museum holds the artist’s droit moral (moral rights), meaning that it is the only authorised organisation to cast bronzes from Rodin’s original plaster models. For almost a century, the museum has been reproducing the great sculptor’s work. This practice ensures that Rodin’s final wishes are fulfilled: his oeuvre is lent a permanency and his legacy continues to grow and flourish. Other casts of La Cariatide au vase are held in some of the world’s most prestigious museums and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Cantor Sculpture Garden, Stanford University, California; Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan; and the Musée Rodin, Paris.
The figure of the caryatid derives from Greek architecture. Female figures were used as a form of architectural support in place of columns. In Rodin’s La Cariatide au vase, he has transformed this decorative, architectural device into an autonomous figure infused with a sense of life and emotion. No longer an upright figure of support, she has collapsed under the weight of the vase that rests upon her shoulder. Wrought with emotion, her bowed head and compressed body suggests a sense of weariness and despair as she is oppressed by the weight of her interminable burden.
The crouched pose of the figure in La Cariatide au vase was one of Rodin’s favourite and he extensively explored its expressive possibilities in a number of other works. La Cariatide à la pierre (A. Le Normand-Romain, S.1297) is almost identical to the present work however instead of a vase, the female figure is holding a large stone. Rodin incorporated this figure into his monumental sculptural work, La Porte de l’Enfer (The Gates of Hell), which features many of Rodin’s most famous motifs including Le Baiser, Le Penseur and the present work. La Cariatide à la pierre was one of the first pieces to be included in La Porte de l’Enfer and quickly became one of Rodin’s most popular and sought after works. As one critic noted, ‘”Sorrow”, a young girl pressed down by a weight upon her shoulder… This supple little creature…is regarded by the sculptor and his friends as one of his very best compositions, and many copies of it have been made…in both marble and bronze’ (T. Bartlett, ‘Auguste Rodin, Sculptor’ in A. E. Elsen, ‘The Gates of Hell’ by Auguste Rodin, Stanford, 1985, p. 128).
It has been suggested that the low, crouched pose of La Cariatide au vase and La Cariatide à la pierre was inspired by Michelangelo’s Crouching Boy. Rodin conceived these works at a critical period of his career. He greatly admired and was heavily influenced by Renaissance artist, Michelangelo. The idealised, statuesque proportions of the Florentine master’s sculpture and the emotional intensity that he imbued in his figures were characteristics that can be seen in Rodin’s early work. In the early 1880s, at the time that he was working on La Porte de l’Enfer and La Cariatide au vase, Rodin began increasingly to look to nature in the creation of his work, working directly from life instead of producing idealised, Michelangelesque figures. He often asked his models to walk freely around his studio and he made quick clay models of their natural poses and forms. This enabled him to capture the body in motion, imbuing his work with a movement, force and drama that was unique for his time and is exemplified by La Cariatide au vase.
Known as the father of modern sculpture, Auguste Rodin was one of the most influential sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th Century. Born in Paris in 1840, he revolutionised the medium, breaking with tradition by depicting the human figure with an intense vitality, power and beauty. Using mythology, literature and history, as well as his own vivid imagination as his sources, Rodin created figural sculpture that demonstrates the great extremes and depth of human emotion – from anguish and despair, to ecstasy and rapture – with an expressive intensity that was unprecedented at the time and continues to resonate today.
Conceived circa 1881-1882, La Cariatide au vase was considered by critics at the time of its creation to be one of Rodin’s greatest works. With its rich patina and large size, this work demonstrates Rodin’s innovative mastery at capturing not only the beauty of the human form but imparting a psychological depth to the figure before us. Crouching down, the woman is holding a large vase upon her shoulder, her head bent over by its weight. She appears lost in her own world; pensive yet melancholic, as if worn down by the physical burden that she carries upon her. The spiralled, twisted shape of the figure’s body – her crossed arms, curving back and bent legs – not only demonstrates Rodin’s exquisite modelling of the female form, but encourages the viewer to regard her from all angles, each facet, protrusion and shadow heightening the compelling visual beauty of the piece.
La Cariatide au vase was cast by the Musée Rodin. In 1916, the year before his death, Rodin gave to the French nation all of his art and its rights for reproduction and to this day, the museum holds the artist’s droit moral (moral rights), meaning that it is the only authorised organisation to cast bronzes from Rodin’s original plaster models. For almost a century, the museum has been reproducing the great sculptor’s work. This practice ensures that Rodin’s final wishes are fulfilled: his oeuvre is lent a permanency and his legacy continues to grow and flourish. Other casts of La Cariatide au vase are held in some of the world’s most prestigious museums and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Cantor Sculpture Garden, Stanford University, California; Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan; and the Musée Rodin, Paris.
The figure of the caryatid derives from Greek architecture. Female figures were used as a form of architectural support in place of columns. In Rodin’s La Cariatide au vase, he has transformed this decorative, architectural device into an autonomous figure infused with a sense of life and emotion. No longer an upright figure of support, she has collapsed under the weight of the vase that rests upon her shoulder. Wrought with emotion, her bowed head and compressed body suggests a sense of weariness and despair as she is oppressed by the weight of her interminable burden.
The crouched pose of the figure in La Cariatide au vase was one of Rodin’s favourite and he extensively explored its expressive possibilities in a number of other works. La Cariatide à la pierre (A. Le Normand-Romain, S.1297) is almost identical to the present work however instead of a vase, the female figure is holding a large stone. Rodin incorporated this figure into his monumental sculptural work, La Porte de l’Enfer (The Gates of Hell), which features many of Rodin’s most famous motifs including Le Baiser, Le Penseur and the present work. La Cariatide à la pierre was one of the first pieces to be included in La Porte de l’Enfer and quickly became one of Rodin’s most popular and sought after works. As one critic noted, ‘”Sorrow”, a young girl pressed down by a weight upon her shoulder… This supple little creature…is regarded by the sculptor and his friends as one of his very best compositions, and many copies of it have been made…in both marble and bronze’ (T. Bartlett, ‘Auguste Rodin, Sculptor’ in A. E. Elsen, ‘The Gates of Hell’ by Auguste Rodin, Stanford, 1985, p. 128).
It has been suggested that the low, crouched pose of La Cariatide au vase and La Cariatide à la pierre was inspired by Michelangelo’s Crouching Boy. Rodin conceived these works at a critical period of his career. He greatly admired and was heavily influenced by Renaissance artist, Michelangelo. The idealised, statuesque proportions of the Florentine master’s sculpture and the emotional intensity that he imbued in his figures were characteristics that can be seen in Rodin’s early work. In the early 1880s, at the time that he was working on La Porte de l’Enfer and La Cariatide au vase, Rodin began increasingly to look to nature in the creation of his work, working directly from life instead of producing idealised, Michelangelesque figures. He often asked his models to walk freely around his studio and he made quick clay models of their natural poses and forms. This enabled him to capture the body in motion, imbuing his work with a movement, force and drama that was unique for his time and is exemplified by La Cariatide au vase.