Please find details of “Hand of God” by Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin was a French sculptor and the founder of modern sculpture. The artist was born in a poor family. Later he attempted to enter the École des Beaux-Arts, but failed the competitive examinations three times. Since 1864 the artist began to work with the sculptor Albert Carrier-Belleuse. In 1875 Rodin traveled around Italy, and there he found inspiration in the works bt Michelangelo and Donatello. In particular, after the voyage he moved from academism to realism. This transition led to the scandal around his work “The age of bronze” exhibited in 1877 at the Paris Salon.
“The gates of Hell”
The main project Rodin received in 1880: “The gates of Hell” for the future Museum of the Decorative Arts in Paris. Especially, the theme were scenes from Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. His original conception was similar to the famous “The Gates of Paradise” of the Baptistery in Florence. However, after he saw the art of Pre-Raphaelites, he changed his mind. Rodin deicided to depict forms full of feeligs and emotions, specifically the agony of pain, love and suffer. Although he had never finished the monument, it gave significant artworks such as “The Thinker”. Later monumental sculptures, including figures of Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac, made the artist considered to be a modern-day Michelangelo.
“Hand of God”
Adam and Eve emerge from the rock in the God’s hand. Divine creation of the world is depicted through the prism of the art of sculpture, the process of artistic creation. This work is a homage to Michelangelo and especially his unfinished “Slaves” materializing out of the rock. The figures come out of the rough stone, obtaining human forms and will. Rodin once said, “When God created the world, it is of modeling he must have thought first of all.”
Adam and Eve arise as an unified essence, as a vivid being from an inanimate matter. The artist depicts one moment of stone’s convulsions so precise, that the sculpture seems to be in motion. The couple is vulnerable, they are alone and hardly feel the touch of the “Hand of God”.
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