Introduction
Auguste Rodin was a French painter who was born on 18th November 1840. Rodin was the progenitor of modern sculpture because of his great passion in artistic works. Rodin desired to be academically recognized and hence took a craftsman approach to better his skills in arts. However, Rodin was not accepted in the Paris School of Arts. This was however not a set back to pursuing his dream. He possessed a unique ability to model complex and deeply pocketed surface in clay. Rodin is one of the people behind the history of arts. He died on the 17th November 1917.
Rodin used different artistic styles in coming up with attractive arts and sculptures. He applied a style referred to as marcottage. This style is simply referred to as layering in English. Marcottage enabled Rodin to use the sculptural elements time and again. Contrast is another style that Rodin used in his artistic works. This was achieved by placing his subjects on rough rock so as to emphasize immediacy. Rodin used a style that is not very common in other people. He sometimes made art without lifting his pencil from the surface.
The Eternal idol is one of Rodin’s famous sculptures. The sculpture is that of a young woman who has a dreamy look on her face. The woman is half seated with her head bending forward. A man in front of the woman restrains his desires to kiss the woman by interlocking his hands behind his back. The man bends softly and plants a kiss beneath the woman’s breast. Most of Rodin’s artistic works were erotic. I like the sculpture because it arouses sensual emotions as it depicts the force between the two lovers. The sculpture is one of the historic arts of Rodin. The art is appreciated by many artists and some artists have even tried to learn and advance their artistic works by referring to Rodin’s works.
The thinker is one of the most famous sculptures by Auguste Rodin. Rodin used the common erotic style in this artistic work. This implication is due to the fact that the sculpture is that of a naked man. Auguste used a style that aroused emotional feelings in this famous sculpture and this is what makes his works of art to be appreciated. By observing his works of art, a person could tell what kind of emotions the sculpture was trying to signify. To show calmness to the sculpture, Rodin used the style of making the surface of the sculpture completely smooth. In this sculpture the marcottage style was still applied by Rodin when creating the base for the sculpture. His unique styles in arts made his artistic works stand out from other artistic works by other artists.
The thinker sculpture was inspirited by a divine comedy actor from Paris known as Dante. The thinker is the sculpture of a man seated on a rock deeply contemplating. One hand is on the man’s chin while the other hand is resting on the man’s lap. His head is lowly bent showing that the man is deep thought. This sculpture was to represent Dante seated at the top of the door to the theater reflecting on the scene below. The sculpture shows that the man is in sober meditation struggling with his inner thoughts. The sculpture’s unique posture is attractive and the nude nature of the sculpture makes it more interesting. The sculpture is one of the most appreciated works of art by Rodin and has a lot of historical significance behind it.
