,,auguste ,,rodin ,by ,,rainer ,,maria ,,rilke ,translated by ,jessie ,lemont and ,hans ,trausil4 ,new ,york ,sunwise ,turn ,inc4 #aiai ,illustration3 ,rodin ,photographed by ,gertrude ,kasebier ,,archaic ,,torso ,,of ,,apollo ,we cannot fathom his mysterious head1 ,through the veiled eyes no flickering ray is sent2 ,but from his torso gleaming light is shed ,as from a candelabrum2 inward bent ,his glance there glows and lingers4 ,otherwise ,the round breast would not blind you with its grace1 ,nor could the soft-curved circle of the thighs ,steal to the arc whence issues a new race4 ,nor could this stark and stunted stone display ,vibrance beneath the shoulders' heavy bar1 ,nor shine like fur upon a beast of prey1 ,nor break forth from its lines like a great star-- ,each spot is like an eye that fixed on you ,with kindling magic makes you live anew4 ,rainer ,maria ,rilke4 ,rendered into ,english by ,jessie ,lemont4 ,,preface ,rodin has pronounced ,rilke's essay the supreme interpretation of his work4 ,a few years ago the sculptor expressed to the translators the wish that some day the book might be placed before the ,english-speaking public4 ,the appreciation was published originally as one of a series of ,art ,monographs under the editorship of the late ,richard ,muther4 ,to estimate and interpret the work of an artist is to be creatively just to him4 ,for this reason there are fewer critics than there are artists1 and criticism with but few exceptions is almost invariably negligible and futile4 ,the strongest and most procreant contact is that which takes place between two creative minds4 ,this book of ,rilke on ,rodin is the fruit of such a contact4 ,it ripened on the tree of a great friendship for the master4 ,for a number of years ,rilke lived close to ,rodin at #gg rue de ,varenne1 in the old mansion surrounded by a beautiful park which was subsequently dedicated to ,france by the artist and is now the ,muse de ,rodin4 ,here the young poet shared the life of the aged sculptor and his most silent hours4 ,rodin felt that ,rilke approached his sculptures from the same imaginative sphere whence his own creative impulse sprang2 he knew that in the pellucid and illuminating realm of the poetic his works found their spiritual home as their material manifestation partook of the atmosphere when placed under the open sky1 given wholly to the sun and wind and rain4 ,h4 ,t4 ,,auguste ,,rodin ,writers work through words--,sculptors through matter--,pomponius ,gauricus in his essay1 ,de ,sculptura 7about #aejd74 ,the hero is he who is immovably centred4--,emerson4 ,rodin was solitary before fame came to him and afterward he became1 perhaps1 still more solitary4 ,for fame is ultimately but the summary of all misunderstandings that crystallize about a new name4 ,rodin's message and its significance are little understood by the many men who gathered about him4 ,it would be a long and weary task to enlighten them2 nor is this necessary1 for they assembled about the name1 not about the work1--a work that has grown far beyond this name's sound and limitations1 and that has become nameless as a plain is nameless or a sea that has a name but on the map1 in books1 and to men1 but which is1 in reality1 but distance1 movement and depth4 ,the work that is to be spoken of in these pages developed through long years4 ,it has grown like a forest and has not lost one hour4 ,one walks among these thousand forms overwhelmed with the imagination and the craftsmanship which they represent1 and involuntarily one looks for the two hands out of which this world has risen4 ,one thinks of how small man's hands are1 how soon they tire1 and how little time is given them to move4 ,and one longs to see these hands that have lived like a hundred hands2 like a nation of hands that rose before sunrise for the accomplishment of this work4 ,one asks for the man who directs these hands4 ,who is this man8 ,he is a man rich in years2 and his life is one that cannot be related4 ,it began and still continues2 stretches out deeply into a great age1 and to us1 it seems as though it had passed many hundreds of years ago4 ,it perhaps had a childhood2 a childhood in poverty--dark1 groping and uncertain4 ,and maybe it possesses this childhood still1 for1 says ,st4 ,augustine somewhere1 whither should it have gone8 ,it holds1 perchance1 all its past hours1 the hours of expectation and abandonment1 the hours of doubt and the long hours of need4 ,it is a life that has lost nothing and has forgotten nothing2 a life that has absorbed all things as it passed1 for only out of such a life as this1 we believe1 could have risen such fulness and abundance of work2 only such a life as this1 in which everything is simultaneous and awake1 in which nothing passes unnoticed1 could remain young and strong and rise again and again to high creations4 ,perchance the time will come when someone will picture this life1 its details1 its episodes and its conflicts4 ,someone will tell a story of a child that often forgot to eat because it seemed more important to him to carve inferior wood with a cheap knife1 and someone will relate some event of the days of early manhood that contained promise of future greatness--one of those incidents that are intimate and prophetic4 ,perhaps some such thought as that which1 five hundred years ago1 a monk expressed to young ,michel ,colombe1 may have suggested itself to ,rodin on one of the crossways1 at the beginning of his work3 ,travaille1 petit1 regarde tout ton saoul et le clocher jour de ,saint ,pol1 et les belles oeuvres des compaignons1 regarde1 aime le bon ,dieu1 et tu auras la grce des grandes choses4 ,and thou wilt have the grace of the great things4 ,for it was just that which ,rodin was seeking3 the grace of the great things4 ,the galleries of the ,louvre revealed to the young artist radiant visions of the antique world2 visions of southern skies1 and of the sea1 and far beyond rose heavy stone monuments1 reaching over from immemorial civilizations into times not yet existent4 ,there were stones that lay as if asleep but that held a suggestion that they would awake on some last judgment day1 stones on which there was nothing mortal4 ,there were others that bore a movement1 a gesture that had remained as fresh as though it had been caught there in order to be given to some child that was passing by4 ,not alone in the great works and in these monuments was this vitality alive3 the unnoticed1 the small1 the concealed1 were not less filled with this deep inward excitement1 with this rich and surprising unrest of living things4 ,even stillness1 where there was stillness1 consisted of hundreds and hundreds of moments of motion that kept their equilibrium4 ,there were small figures1 animals particularly1 that moved1 stretched or curled2 and although a bird perched quietly1 it contained the element of flight4 ,a sky grew back of it and hung about it2 the far distance was folded down on each of its feathers1 and should these feathers spread out like wings1 the wide expanse of them would be quite great4 ,there was stillness in the stunted animals that stood to support the cornices of the cathedrals or cowered and cringed beneath the consoles1 too inert to bear the weight2 and there were dogs and squirrels1 wood-peckers and lizards1 tortoises1 rats and snakes4 ,at least one of each kind2 these creatures seemed to have been caught in the open1 in the forest and on roads1 and the compulsion to live under stone tendrils1 flowers and leaves must have changed them slowly into what they were now and were to remain forever4 ,but other animals could be found that were born in this petrified environment1 without remembrance of a former existence4 ,they were entirely the natives of this erect1 rising1 steeply ascending world4 ,over skeleton-like arches they stood in their fanatic meagerness1 with mouths open1 like those of pigeons2 shrieking1 for the nearness of the bells had destroyed their hearing4 ,they did not bear their weight where they stood1 but stretched themselves and thus helped the stones to rise4 ,the bird-like ones were perched high up on the balustrades1 as though they were on the way to other climes1 and wanted but to rest a few centuries and look down upon the growing city4 ,others in the forms of dogs were suspended horizontally from the eaves1 high up in the air1 ready to throw the rainwater out of their jaws that were swollen from vomiting4 ,all had transformed and accommodated themselves to this environment2 they had lost nothing of life4 ,on the contrary1 they lived more strongly and more vehemently--lived forever the fervent anu impetuous life of the time that had created them4 ,and whosoever saw these figures felt that they were not born out of a whim nor out of a playful attempt to find forms unheard of before4 ,necessity had created them4 ,out of the fear of invisible doomsdays of a hard faith men had freed themselves by these visible things2 from uncertainty men had taken refuge in this reality4 ,they sought ,god no more by inventing images of ,him or by trying to conceive the ,much-too-far-,one2 but they evinced their piety by carrying all fear and poverty1 all anxiety and all pleading of the lowly into ,his house4 ,this was better than to paint2 for painting was a delusion1 a beautiful and skillful deception4 ,men were longing for the more real and simple4 ,thus originated the strange sculpture of the cathedrals1 this6 cross-breed of the heavy laden and of the animals4 ,as the young artist looked from the plastic art of the ,middle ,ages1 back to the ,antique1 and again beyond the ,antique into the beginnings of untold pasts1 did it not seem as though the human soul had longed again and again through the bright and dark periods of history1 for this art which expressed more than word and painting1 more than picture and symbol2 this art which is the humble materialization of mankind's hopes and fears8 ,at the end of the ,renaissance there was the flowering of a great plastic art2 at that time when life renewed itself1 when there was a revealment of the secret of faces1 and a great vital movement was in the state of growth4 ,and now8 ,had not a time come again that was urging toward this expression--this strong and impressive exposition of what was unexpressed1 confused1 unrevealed8 ,the arts somehow had renewed themselves1 zeal and expectation filled and animated them4 ,but perhaps this art1 the plastic art that still hesitated in the fear of a great past1 was to be called upon to find that which the others sought gropingly and longingly4 ,this art was to help a time whose misfortune was that all its conflicts lay in the invisible4 ,the language of this art was the body4 ,and this body--when had one last seen it8 ,strata after strata of costumes were piled over it like an ever renewed varnish2 but under this protecting crust the growing soul had changed it2 and this growing soul worked breathlessly at remodeling the expression of die faces4 ,the body had become a different one4 ,were it now unveiled1 it would perhaps reveal the imprint of a thousand new expressions as well as the stamp of those old mysteries that1 rising from the unconscious1 reared their dripping heads like strange river-gods out of the singing blood4 ,and this body could not be less beautiful than that of the ,antique4 ,it must be of a still higher beauty4 ,for two thousand years life had held this body in its hands and had moulded it1 had forged it1 now listening1 now hammering1 night and day4 ,the art of painting dreamed of this body1 adorned it with light and illumined it with twilight1 surrounded it with all softness and all delight2 touched it like a petal1 and in turn was swept by it as by a wave4 ,but plastic art1 to which it in truth belonged1 as yet of this body knew nothing4 ,here was a task as great as the world4 ,and he who stood before it and beheld it was unknown and struggling under the necessity of earning his bread4 ,he was quite alone and if he had been a real dreamer1 he would have dreamed a beautiful and deep dream--a dream that no one would have understood--one of those long1 long dreams in which a life could pass like a day4 ,but this young man who worked in the factory at ,svres was a dreamer whose dream rose in his hands and he began immediately its realization4 ,he sensed where he had to begin4 ,a quietude which was in him showed him the wise road4 ,here already ,rodin's deep harmony with ,nature revealed itself2 that harmony which the poet ,george ,rodenbach calls an elemental power4 ,and1 indeed1 it is an underlying patience in ,rodin which renders him so great1 a silent1 superior forbearance resembling the wonderful patience and kindness of ,nature that begins creation with a trifle in order to proceed silently and steadily toward abundant consummation4 ,rodin did not presume to create the tree in its full growth4 ,he began with the seed beneath the earth1 as it were4 ,and this seed grew downward1 sunk deep its roots and anchored them before it began to shoot upward in the form of a young sprout4 ,this required time1 time that lengthened into years4 ,one must not hurry1 said ,rodin to the few friends who gathered about him1 in answer to their urgence4 ,at that time the war came and ,rodin went to ,brussels4 ,he modeled some figures for private houses and several of the groups on the top of the ,bourse1 and also the four large corner figures on the monument erected to ,loos1 ,city-mayor in the ,parc d',anvers4 ,these were orders which he carried out conscientiously1 without allowing his growing personality to speak4 ,his real development took place outside of all this2 it was compressed into the free hours of the evening and unfolded itself in the solitary stillness of the nights2 and he had to bear this division of his energy for years4 ,he possessed the quiet perseverance of men who are necessary1 the strength of those for whom a great work is waiting4 ,while he was working on the ,exchange of ,brussels1 he may have felt that there were no more buildings which admitted of the worth of sculpture as the cathedrals had done1 those great magnets of plastic art of past times4 ,sculpture was a separate thing1 as was the easel picture1 but it did not require a wall like the picture4 ,it did not even need a roof4 ,it was an object that could exist for itself alone1 and it was well to give it entirely the character of a complete thing about which one could walk1 and which one could look at from all sides4 ,and yet it had to distinguish itself somehow from other things1 the ordinary things which everyone could touch4 ,it had to become unimpeachable1 sacrosanct1 separated from chance and time through which it rose isolated and miraculous1 like the face of a seer4 ,it had to be given its own certain place1 in which no arbitrariness had placed it1 and it must be intercalated in the silent continuance of space and its great laws4 ,it had to be fitted into the space that surrounded it1 as into a niche2 its certainty1 steadiness and loftiness did not spring from its significance but from its harmonious adjustment to its environment4 ,rodin knew that1 first of all1 sculpture depended upon an infallible knowledge of the human body4 ,slowly1 searchingly1 he had approached the surface of this body from which now a hand stretched out toward him1 and the form1 the gesture of this hand contained the semblance of the force within the body4 ,the farther he progressed on this remote road1 the more chance remained behind1 and one law led him on to another4 ,and ultimately it was this surface toward which his search was directed4 ,it consisted of infinitely many movements4 ,the play of light upon these surfaces made manifest that each of these movements was different and each significant4 ,at this point they seemed to flow into one another2 at that1 to greet each other hesitatingly2 at a third1 to pass by each other without recognition1 like strangers4 ,there were undulations without end4 ,there was no point at which there was not life and movement4 ,rodin had now discovered the fundamental element of his art2 as it were1 the germ of his world4 ,it was the surface1--this differently great surface1 variedly accentuated1 accurately measured1 out of which everything must rise1--which was from this moment the subject matter of his art1 the thing for which he laboured1 for which he suffered and for which he was awake4 ,his art was not built upon a great idea1 but upon a minute1 conscientious realization1 upon the attainable1 upon a craft4 ,there was no haughtiness in him4 ,he pledged himself to a humble and difficult beauty that he could oversee1 summon and direct4 ,the other beauty1 the great beauty1 had to come when everything was prepared1 as animals come to a drinking-place in the forest in the late night when nothing foreign is there4 ,with this awakening ,rodin's most individual work began4 ,not until now had all the traditional conceptions of plastic art become worthless to him4 ,pose1 grouping1 composition now meant nothing to him4 ,he saw only innumerable living surfaces1 only life4 ,the means of expression which he had formed for himself were directed to and brought forward this aliveness4 ,the next task was to become master of himself and of his abundance4 ,rodin seized upon the life that was everywhere about him4 ,he grasped it in its smallest details2 he observed it and it followed him2 he awaited it at the cross-roads where it lingered2 he overtook it as it ran before him1 and he found it in all places equally great1 equally powerful and overwhelming4 ,there was not one part of the human body that was insignificant or unimportant3 it was alive4 ,the life that was expressed in faces was easily readable4 ,life manifested in bodies was more dispersed1 greater1 more mysterious and more eternal4 ,here it did not disguise itself2 it carried itself carelessly where there was carelessness and proudly with the proud4 ,receding from the stage of the face it had taken off its mask and concealed itself behind the scenes of garments4 ,here in the body ,rodin found the world of his time as he had recognized the world of the ,middle ,ages in the cathedrals4 ,a universe gathered about this veiled mystery--a world held together by an organism was adapted to this organism and made subject to it4 ,man had become church and there were thousands and thousands of churches1 none similar to the other and each one alive4 ,but the problem was to show that they were all of ,one ,god4 ,for years ,rodin walked the roads of life searchingly and humbly as one who felt himself a beginner4 ,no one knew of his struggles2 he had no confidants and few friends4 ,behind the work that provided him with necessities his growing work hid itself awaiting its time4 ,he read a great deal4 ,at this time he might have been seen in the streets of ,brussels always with a book in his hand1 but perhaps this book was but a pretext for the absorption in himself1 in the gigantic task that lay before him4 ,as with all creative people the feeling of having a great work before him was an incitement1 something that augmented and concentrated his forces4 ,and if doubts or uncertainties assailed him1 or he was possessed of the great impatience of those who rise1 or the fear of an early death1 or the threat of daily want1 all these influences found in him a quiet1 erect resistance1 a defiance1 a strength and confidence--all the not-yet-unfurled flags of a great victory4 ,perhaps it was the past that in such moments came to his side1 speaking in the voice of the cathedrals that he went to hear again and again4 ,in books1 too1 he found many thoughts that gave him encouragement4 ,he read for the first time ,dante's ,divina ,comedia4 ,it was a revelation4 ,the suffering bodies of another generation passed before him4 ,he gazed into a century the garments of which had been torn off2 he saw the great and never-to-be-forgotten judgment of a poet on his age4 ,there were pictures that justified him in his ideas2 when he read about the weeping feet of ,nicholas the ,third1 he realized that there were such feet1 that there was a weeping which was everywhere1 over the whole of mankind1 and there were tears that came from all pores4 ,from ,dante he came to ,baudelaire4 ,here was no judgment1 no poet1 who1 guided by the hand of a shadow1 climbed to the heavens4 ,a man who suffered had raised his voice1 had lifted it high above the heads of others as though to save them from perishing4 ,in this poet's verses there were passages1 standing out prominently1 that did not seem to have been written but moulded2 words and groups of words that had melted under the glowing touch of the poet2 lines that were like reliefs and sonnets that carried like columns with interlaced capitals the burden of a cumulating thought4 ,he felt dimly that this poetic art1 where it ended abruptly1 bordered on the beginning of another art and that it reached out toward this other art4 ,in ,baudelaire he felt the artist who had preceded him1 who had not allowed himself to be deluded by faces but who sought bodies in which life was greater1 more cruel and more restless4 ,after having read the works of these two poets they remained always near him1 his thoughts went from them and yet returned to them again4 ,at the time when his art took form and prepared itself for expression1 when life as it presented itself before him had little significance1 ,rodin dwelt in the books of the poets and gleaned from the past4 ,later1 when as a creator he again touched those realms1 their forms rose like memories in his own life1 aching and real1 and entered into his work as though into a home4 ,at last1 after years of solitary labor he made the attempt at a step forward with one of his creations4 ,it was a question put before the public4 ,the public answered negatively4 ,and ,rodin retired once more for thirteen years4 ,these were the years during which he1 still unknown1 matured to a master and became the absolute ruler of his own medium1 ever working1 ever thinking1 ever experimenting1 uninfluenced by the age that did not participate in him4 ,perhaps the fact that his entire development had taken place in this undisturbed tranquility gave him later1 when men disputed over the value of his work1 that powerful certainty4 ,at the moment when they began to doubt him1 he doubted himself no longer1 all uncertainty lay behind him4 ,his fate depended no more upon the acclamation or the criticism of the people2 it was decided at the time they thought to crush it with mockery and hostility4 ,during the period of his growth no strange voice sounded1 no praise bewildered1 no blame disturbed him4 ,as ,parsifal grew so his art grew in purity alone with itself and with a great eternal ,nature4 ,only his work spoke to him4 ,it spoke to him in the morning when he awakened1 and at even it sounded in his hands like an instrument that has been laid away4 ,hence his work was so invincible4 ,for it came to the world ripe1 it did not appear as something unfinished that begged for justification4 ,it came as a reality that had wrought itself into existence1 a reality which is1 which one must acknowledge4 ,like a monarch who1 hearing that a city is to be built in his kingdom1 meditates whether it would be well to grant the privilege1 and hesitates2 and finally goes forth to see the place and finds there a great powerful city which is finished1 which stands as though from eternity with walls1 towers and gates1 so the world came when ultimately called to the completed work of ,rodin4 ,this period of ,rodin's maturescence is limited by two works4 ,at its beginning stands the head of ,the ,man with the ,broken ,nose1 at its end the figure of ,the ,man of the ,primal ,age4 ,l',homme au ,nez ,cass was refused by the ,salon in the year of #ahfd4 ,one comprehends this rejection1 for one feels that in this work ,rodin's art was mature1 certain and perfected4 ,with the inconsiderateness of a great confession it contradicted the requirements of academic beauty which were still the dominating standard4 ,in vain ,rude had given his ,goddess of ,rebellion on the top of the triumphal gate of the ,place de ,l'toile that wild gesture and that far-reaching cry4 ,in vain ,barye had created his supple animals2 and ,the ,dance by ,carpeaux was merely an object of mockery until finally it became so accustomed a sight that it was passed by unnoticed4 ,the plastic art that was pursued was still that based upon models1 poses and allegories2 it held to the superficial1 cheap and comfortable metier that was satisfied with the more or less skillful repetition of some sanctified appeal4 ,in this environment the head of ,the ,man with the ,broken ,nose should have roused the storm that did not break out until the occasion of the exhibition of some later works of ,rodin4 ,but probably it was returned almost unexamined as the work of some one unknown4 ,rodin's motive in modeling this head1 the head of an ageing1 ugly man1 whose broken nose even helped to emphasize the tortured expression of the face1 must have been the fulness of life that was cumulated in these features4 ,there were no symmetrical planes in this face at all1 nothing repeated itself1 no spot remained empty1 dumb or indifferent4 ,this face had not been touched by life1 it had been permeated through and through with it as though an inexorable hand had thrust it into fate and held it there as in the whirlpool of a washing1 gnawing torrent4 ,when one holds and turns this mask in the hand1 one is surprised at the continuous change of profiles1 none of which is incidental1 imagined or indefinite4 ,there is on this head no line1 no exaggeration1 no contour that ,rodin has not seen and willed4 ,one feels that some of these wrinkles came early1 others later1 that between this and that deep furrow lie years1 terrible years4 ,one knows that some of the marks on this face were engraved slowly1 hesitatingly1 that others were traced gently and afterwards drawn in strongly by some habit or thought that came again and again2 one recognizes sharp lines that must have been cut in one night1 as though picked by a bird in the worn forehead of a sleepless man4 ,all these impressions are encompassed in the hard and intense life that rises out of this one face4 ,as one lays down this mask one seems to stand on the height of a tower and to look down upon the erring roads over which many nations have wandered4 ,and as one lifts it up again it becomes a thing that one must call beautiful for the sake of its perfection4 ,but this beauty is not the result of the incomparable technique alone4 ,it rises from the feeling of balance and equilibrium in all these moving surfaces1 from the knowledge that all these moments of emotion originate and come to an end in the thing itself4 ,if one is gripped by the many-voiced tortures of this face1 immediately afterwards there comes the feeling that no accusation proceeds from it4 ,it does not plead to the world2 it seems to carry its justice within itself1 to hold the reconciliation of all its contradictions and to possess a forbearance great enough for all its burden4 ,when ,rodin created this mask he had before him a man who sat quiet with a calm face4 ,but the face was that of a living person and when he searched through it he saw that it was as full of motion1 as full of unrest as the dashing of waves4 ,in the course of the lines there was movement2 there was movement in the contours of the surfaces2 shadows stirred as in sleep and light seemed to softly touch the forehead4 ,nothing possessed rest1 not even death2 for decay1 too1 meant movement1 dead matter still subject to life4 ,nature is all motion and an art that wished to give a faithful6 and conscientious interpretation of life could not make rest1 that did not exist1 its ideal4 ,in reality the ,antique did not hold such an ideal4 ,one has only to think of the ,nike4 ,this piece of sculpture has not only brought down to us the movement of a beautiful maiden who goes to meet her lover1 but it is at the same time an eternal picture of ,hellenic wind in all its sweep and splendour4 ,there was no quiet even in the stones of still older civilizations4 ,the hieratically retained gesture of very ancient cults contained an unrest of living surfaces like water within a vessel4 ,there were currents in the taciturn gods that were sitting2 and those that were standing commanded with a gesture that sprang like a fountain out from the stone and fell back again causing many ripples4 ,this was not movement that opposed the intrinsic character of the sculpture4 ,only the movement that does not complete itself within the thing1 that is not kept in balance by other movements1 is that which exceeds beyond the boundaries of sculpture4 ,the plastic work of art resembles those cities of olden times where the life was spent entirely within the walls4 ,the inhabitants did not cease to breathe1 their life ran on2 but nothing urged them beyond the limits of the walls that surrounded them1 nothing pointed beyond the gates and no expectation opened a vista to the outer world4 ,however great the movement of a sculpture may be1 though it spring out of infinite distances1 even from the depths of the sky1 it must return to itself1 the great circle must complete itself1 the circle of solitude that encloses a work of art4 ,this was the law which1 unwritten1 lived in the sculptures of times gone by4 ,rodin recognized it2 he knew that that which gave distinction to a plastic work of art was its complete self-absorption4 ,it must not demand nor expect aught from outside1 it should refer to nothing that lay beyond it1 see nothing that was not within itself2 its environment must lie within its own boundaries4 ,the sculptor ,leonardo has given to ,gioconda that unapproachableness1 that movement that turns inward1 that look which one cannot catch or meet4 ,probably his ,francesco ,sforza contained the same element1 it carried a gesture which was like a proud envoy of state who returned after a completed commission4 ,during the long years that passed between the mask of ,the ,man with the ,broken ,nose and the figure of ,the ,man of ,primal ,times many silent developments took place in ,rodin4 ,new relations connected him more closely with the past of the art of sculpture1 and the greatness of this past1 which has been a restriction to so many1 to him had become the wing that carried him4 ,for if he received during that time an encouragement and confirmation of that which he wished and sought1 it came to him from the art of the antique world and from the dim mystery of the cathedrals4 ,men did not speak to him4 ,stones spoke4 ,the ,man with the ,broken ,nose had revealed how ,rodin sought his way through a face4 ,the ,man of ,primal ,times proved his unlimited supremacy over the body4 ,souverain tailleur d'ymaiges--this title1 which the masters of the ,middle ,ages bestowed on one another without envy and with serious valuation1 should belong to him4 ,here was a life-sized figure in all parts of which life was equally powerful and seemed to have been elevated everywhere to the same height of expression4 ,that which was expressed in the face1 that pain of a heavy awakening1 and at the same time the longing for that awakening1 was written on the smallest part of this body4 ,every part was a mouth that spoke a language of its own4 ,the most critical eye could not discover a spot on this figure that was the less alive1 less definite and clear4 ,it was as though strength rose into the veins of this man from the depths of the earth4 ,this figure was like a silhouette of a tree that has the storms of ,march still before it and trembles because the fruit and fulness of its summer lives no more in its roots1 but is slowly rising to the trunk about which the great winds will tear4 ,the figure is significant in still another sense4 ,it indicates in the work of ,rodin the birth of gesture4 ,that gesture which grew and developed to such greatness and power1 here bursts forth like a spring that softly ripples over this body4 ,it awakens in the darkness of primal times and in its growth seems to flow through the breadth of this work as though reaching out from by-gone centuries to those that are to come4 ,hesitatingly it unfolds itself in the lifted arms4 ,these arms are still so heavy that the hand of one rests upon the top of the head4 ,but this hand is roused from its sleep1 it concentrates itself quite high on the top of the brain where it lies solitary4 ,it prepares for the work of centuries1 a work that has no measure and no end4 ,and the right foot stands expectant with a first step4 ,one would say of this gesture that it is wrapped into a hard bud4 ,in a thought's glow and a storm in will it unfolds itself and that ,st4 ,john steps forth with excited1 speaking arms and with the splendid step of one who feels ,another follow him4 ,the body of this man is not untested4 ,deserts have glowed through it1 hunger has made it ache and all thirsts have tried it4 ,he has endured and has become hard4 ,his lean1 ascetic body is like a forked piece of wood that encloses1 as it were1 the wide angle of his stride4 ,he walks4 444 ,he walks as though all distances of the world were within him and he distributed them through his mighty step4 ,he strides4444 ,his arms speak of this step1 his fingers spread and seem to make the sign of striding in the air4 ,this ,st4 ,john is the first that walks in the work of ,rodin4 ,many follow4 ,the citizens of ,calais begin their heavy walk1 and all walking seems to prepare for the mighty1 challenging step of ,balzac4 ,the gesture of the standing figure develops further4 ,it withdraws into itself1 it shrivels like burning paper1 it becomes stronger1 more concentrated1 more animated4 ,that ,eve1 that was originally to be placed over the ,gates of ,hell1 stands with head sunk deeply into the shadow of the arms that draw together over the breast like those of a freezing woman4 ,the back is rounded1 the nape of the neck almost horizontal4 ,she bends forward as though listening over her own body in which a new future begins to stir4 ,and it is as though the gravity of this future weighed upon the senses of the woman and drew her down from the freedom of life into the deep1 humble service of motherhood4 ,again and again in his figures ,rodin returned to this bending inward1 to this intense listening to one's own depth4 ,this is seen in the wonderful figure which he has called ,la ,mditation and in that immemorable ,voix ,intrieure1 the most silent voice of ,victor ,hugo's songs1 that stands on the monument of the poet almost hidden under the voice of wrath4 ,never was human body assembled to such an extent about its inner self1 so bent by its own soul and yet upheld by the elastic strength of its blood4 ,the neck1 bent side-wise on the lowered body1 rises and stretches and holds the listening head over the distant roar of life2 this is so impressively and strongly conceived that one does not remember a more gripping gesture or one of deeper meaning4 ,it is striking that the arms are lacking4 ,rodin must have considered these arms as too facile a solution of his task1 as something that did not belong to that body which desired to be enwrapped within itself without the aid of aught external4 ,when one looks upon this figure one thinks of ,duse in a drama of d',annunzio's1 when she is painfully abandoned and tries to embrace without arms and to hold without hands4 ,this scene1 in which her body has learned a caressing that reaches beyond it1 belongs to the unforgettable moments in her acting4 ,it conveys the impression that the arms are something superfluous1 an adornment1 a thing of the rich1 something immoderate that one can throw off in order to become quite poor4 ,she appeared in this moment as though she had forfeited something unimportant1 rather like someone who gives away his cup in order to drink out of the brook4 ,the same completeness is conveyed in all the armless statues of ,rodin3 nothing necessary is lacking4 ,one stands before them as before something whole4 ,the feeling of incompleteness does not rise from the mere aspect of a thing1 but from the assumption of a narrow-minded pedantry1 which says that arms are a necessary part of the body and that a body without arms cannot be perfect4 ,it was not long since that rebellion arose against the cutting off of trees from the edge of pictures by the ,impressionists4 ,custom rapidly accepted this impression4 ,with regard to the painter1 at least1 came the understanding and the belief that an artistic whole need not necessarily coincide with the complete thing1 that new values1 proportions and balances may originate within the pictures4 ,in the art of sculpture1 also1 it is left to the artist to make out of many things one thing1 and from the smallest part of a thing an entirety4 ,there are among the works of ,rodin hands1 single1 small hands which1 without belonging to a body1 are alive4 ,hands that rise1 irritated and in wrath2 hands whose five bristling fingers seem to bark like the five jaws of a dog of ,hell4 ,hands that walk1 sleeping hands1 and hands that are awaking2 criminal hands1 tainted with hereditary disease2 and hands that are tired and will do no more1 and have lain down in some corner like sick animals that know no one can help them4 ,but hands are a complicated organism1 a delta into which many divergent streams of life rush together in order to pour themselves into the great storm of action4 ,there is a history of hands2 they have their own culture1 their particular beauty2 one concedes to them the right of their own development1 their own needs1 feelings1 caprices and tendernesses4 ,rodin1 knowing through the education which he has given himself that the entire body consists of scenes of life1 of a life that may become in every detail individual and great1 has the power to give to any part of this vibrating surface the independence of a whole4 ,as the human body is to ,rodin an entirety only as long as a common action stirs all its parts and forces1 so on the other hand portions of different bodies that cling to one another from an inner necessity merge into one organism4 ,a hand laid on another's shoulder or thigh does not any more belong to the body from which it came1--from this body and from the object which it touches or seizes something new originates1 a new thing that has no name and belongs to no one4 ,this comprehension is the foundation of the grouping of figures by ,rodin2 from it springs that coherence of the figures1 that concentration of the forms1 that quality of clinging together4 ,he does not proceed to work from figures that embrace one another4 ,he has no models which he arranges and places together2 he starts with the points of the strongest contact as being the culminating points of the work4 ,there where something new arises1 he begins and devotes all the capacity of his chisel to the mysterious phenomenon that accompanies the growth of a new thing4 ,he works1 as it were1 by the light of the flame that flashes out from these points of contact1 and sees only those parts of the body that are thus illuminated4 ,the spell of the great group of the girl and the man that is named ,the ,kiss lies in this understanding distribution of life4 ,in this group waves flow through the bodies1 a shuddering ripple1 a thrill of strength1 and a presaging of beauty4 ,this is the reason why one beholds everywhere on these bodies the ecstacy of this kiss4 ,it is like a sun that rises and floods all with its light4 ,still more marvelous is that other kiss ,l'ternelle ,idole4 ,the material texture of this creation encloses a living impulse as a wall encloses a garden4 ,one of the copies of this marble is in the possession of ,eugne ,carrire1 and in the silent twilight of his house this stone pulsates like a spring in which there is an eternal motion1 a rising and falling1 a mysterious stir of an elemental force4 ,a girl kneels1 her beautiful body is softly bent backward1 her right arm is stretched behind her4 ,her hand has gropingly found her foot4 ,in these three lines which shut her in from the outer world her life lies enclosed with its secret4 ,the stone beneath her lifts her up as she kneels there4 ,and suddenly1 in the attitude into which the young girl has fallen from idleness1 or reverie1 or solitude1 one recognizes an ancient1 sacred symbol1 a posture like that into which the goddess of distant1 cruel cults had sunk4 ,the head of this woman bends somewhat forward2 with an expression of indulgence1 majesty and forbearance1 she looks down as from the height of a still night upon the man who sinks his face into her bosom as though into many blossoms4 ,he1 too1 kneels1 but deeper1 deep in the stone4 ,his hands lie behind him like worthless and empty things4 ,the right hand is open2 one sees into it4 ,from this group radiates a mysterious greatness4 ,one does not dare to give it one meaning1 it has thousands4 ,thoughts glide over it like shadows1 new meanings arise like riddles and unfold into clear significance4 ,something of the mood of a ,purgatorio lives within this work4 ,a heaven is near that has not yet been reached1 a hell is near that has not yet been forgotten4 ,here1 too1 all splendour flashes from the contact of the two bodies and from the contact of the woman with herself4 ,another conception of the theme of the contact of living surfaces and moving planes is that stupendous ,porte de ,l',enfer on which ,rodin has worked for twenty years and the final casting into bronze of which is imminent4 ,advancing simultaneously in the pursuit of the import of the movements of planes and their points of confluence ,rodin came to seek bodies that touched one another on many points1 bodies whose movements were more vehement1 stronger and more impetuous4 ,the more mutual points of contact two bodies offered1 the more impatiently they rushed upon each other like chemicals of close affinity4 ,the tighter the new whole which they formed held together1 the more they became like one organism4 ,from ,the ,gates of ,hell memories of ,dante emerged4 ,ugolino2 the wandering ones1 ,dante and ,virgil1 close together2 the throng of the voluptuous from among whom like a dried up tree rose the grasping gesture of the avaricious4 ,the centaurs1 the giants and monsters1 the syrens1 fauns and wives of fauns1 all the wild and ravenous god-animals of the pre-,christian forest rose before him4 ,he conjured all the forms of ,dante's dream as though from out the stirring depths of personal remembrance and gave them one after another the silent deliverance of material existence4 ,hundreds of figures and groups were thus created4 ,the visions of the poet who belonged to another age awakened the artist who made them rise again to the knowledge of a thousand other gestures2 gestures of seizing1 losing1 suffering and abandoning1 and his tireless hands stretched out farther and farther beyond the world of the ,florentine to ever new forms and revelations4 ,this earnest1 self-centred worker who had never sought for material and who desired no other fulfilment than was attainable by the increasingly maturing mastery of his chisel thus penetrated through all the dramas of life4 ,the depths of the nights of love unfolded themselves to him and revealed the dark1 sorrowful and blissful breadth of a realm like that of a still heroic world in which there were no garments1 in which faces were extinguished and bodies were supreme4 ,with senses at white heat he sought life in the great chaos of this wrestling1 and what he saw was ,life4 ,life did not close in about him in sultry narrowness3 the atmosphere of the alcoves was far away4 ,here life became work2 a thousandfold life throbbed in every moment4 ,here was loss and gain1 madness and fright1 longing and sorrow4 ,here was a desire that was immeasurable1 a thirst so great that all the waters of the world dried up in it like a single drop4 ,here was no lying and denying1 and here the joys of giving and taking were genuine and great4 ,here were the vices and blasphemies1 the damnations and the beatitudes2 and suddenly it became evident that a world was poor that concealed or buried all this life or pretended that it did not exist4 ,it was6 ,alongside of the whole history of mankind was this other history that did not know disguises1 conventions1 differences or ranks1 that only knew strife4 ,this history1 too1 had its evolution4 ,from an instinct it had become a longing1 from a physical possessorship between man and woman it had become an uplifting desire of human being for human being4 ,thus this history appears in the work of ,rodin2 still the eternal struggle of the sexes1 but the woman is no more the overpowered or willing animal4 ,she is longing and awake like the man1 and both man and woman seem to have met in order to find their souls4 ,the man who rises at night and softly seeks another is like a treasure-seeker who wishes to find on the cross-roads of sex the great happiness4 ,to discover in all lusts and crimes1 in all trials and all despair1 an infinite reason for existence is a part of that great longing that creates poets4 ,here humanity hungers for something beyond itself4 ,here hands stretch out for eternity4 ,here eyes open1 see ,death and do not fear him4 ,here a hopeless heroism reveals itself whose glory dawns and vanishes like a smile1 blossoms and withers like a rose4 ,here are all the storms of desire and the calms of expectation4 ,here are dreams that become deeds and deeds that fade into dreams4 ,here1 as at a gigantic gambling table1 great fortunes are lost or won4 ,rodin's work embodied all this4 ,he who had seen so much life found here life's fulness and abundance3 the body each part of which was will1 the mouths1 that had the form of cries which seemed to rise from the depths of the earth4 ,he found the gestures of the ancient gods1 the beauty and suppleness of animals1 the reeling of old dances1 the movements of forgotten divine services1 strangely combined with new gestures that had originated during the long period in which art was alien and blind to all these relations4 ,these new gestures were particularly interesting to him4 ,they were impatient4 ,as someone who seeks for an object for a long time becomes more and more helpless1 confused1 and hasty1 and finally creates a disorder in an accumulation of things about him1 so the gestures of mankind who cannot find reason for existence1 have become more and more impatient1 nervous and hurried4 ,man's movements have become more hesitating4 ,they have no more the athletic and resolute strength with which former men grappled all things4 ,they do not resemble those movements that are preserved in ancient images1 those gestures of which only the first and the last were important4 ,between these two simple movements innumerable transitions have been interpolated1 and it is manifest that it is just in these intervening moments that the life of the man of to-day passes by2 his action and his disability for action1 the seizing1 the holding1 the abandoning has changed4 ,in everything there is much more experience and at the same time more ignorance2 there is despondency and a continuous attack against opposition2 there is grief over things lost2 there is calculation1 judgment1 consideration and less spontaneity4 ,rodin has discovered these gestures1 has evolved them out of one or several figures and moulded them into sculptural forms4 ,he has endowed hundreds and hundreds of figures that were only a little larger than his hand with the life of all passions1 the blossoming of all delights and the burden of all vices4 ,he nas created bodies that touch each other all over and cling together like animals bitten into each other1 that fall into the depth of oneness like a single organism2 bodies that listen like faces and lift themselves like arms2 chains of bodies1 garlands and tendrils and heavy clusters of bodies into which sin's sweetness rises out of the roots of pain4 ,leonardo only with equal power has thus joined men together in his grandiose representation of the end of the world4 ,in his work as in this are those who throw themselves into the abyss in order to forget the great grief1 and those who shatter their children's heads lest they should grow to experience the great woe4 ,the army of these figures became much too numerous to fit into the frame and wings of the ,gates of ,hell4 ,rodin made choice after choice and eliminated everything that was too solitary to subject itself to the great totality2 everything that was not quite necessary was rejected4 ,he made the figures and groups find their own places2 he observed the life of the people that he had created1 listened to them and left every one to his will4 ,thus year after year the world of this gate grew4 ,its surface to which plastic forms were attached began to live4 ,and as the reliefs became softer and softer the excitement of the figures died away into the surface4 ,in the frame there is from both sides an ascension1 a mutual uplifting2 in the wings of the gates the predominating motion is a falling1 gliding and precipitating4 ,the wings recede somewhat and their upper edge is separated from the projecting edge of the cross-frame by a large surface4 ,before the silent1 closed room of this surface is placed the figure of ,the ,thinker1 the man who realizes the greatness and terror of the spectacle about him1 because he thinks it4 ,he sits absorbed and silent1 heavy with thought3 with all the strength of an acting man he thinks4 ,his whole body has become head and all the blood in his veins has become brain4 ,he occupies the center of the ,gate4 ,above him1 on the top of the frame1 are three male figures2 they stand with heads bent together as though overlooking a great depth2 each stretches out an arm and points toward the abyss which drags them ever downward4 ,the ,thinker must bear this weight within himself4 ,among the groups and figures that have been modeled for this ,gate are many of great beauty4 ,it is impossible to enumerate all of them as it is impossible to describe them4 ,rodin himself once said that he would have to speak for one year in order to recreate one of his works in words4 ,these small figures which are preserved in plaster1 bronze and stone1 like some animal figures of the ,antique1 give the impression of being quite large4 ,there is in ,rodin's studio the cast of a panther1 a ,greek work hardly as large as a hand 7the original of which is in the cabinet of ,medallions in the ,national ,library of ,paris72 as one stands in front of this beast and looks under its body into the room formed by the four strong1 supple paws1 one seems to look into the depth of an ,indian stone temple4 ,as this work grows and extends itself to the greatness of its suggestion1 so the small plastic figures of ,rodin convey the sense of largeness4 ,by the play of innumerably many surfaces and by the perfect and decisive planes1 he creates an effect of magnitude4 ,the atmosphere about these figures is like that which surrounds rocks4 ,an upward sweep of lines seems to lift up the heavens1 the flight of their fall to tear down the stars4 ,at this time1 perhaps1 the ,danaide was created1 a figure that has thrown itself from a kneeling position down into a wealth of flowing hair4 ,it is wonderful to walk slowly about this marble1 to follow the long line that curves about the richly unfolded roundness of the back to the face that loses itself in the stone as though in a great weeping1 and to the hand which like a broken flower speaks softly once more of life that lies deep under the eternal ice of the block4 ,illusion1 the daughter of ,icarus1 is a luminous materialization of a long1 helpless fall4 ,the beautiful group that is called ,l'homme et sa pense is the representation of a man who kneels and with the touch of his forehead upon the stone before him awakens the silent form of a woman who remains imprisoned in the stone4 ,in this group one is impressed with the expression of the inseparableness with which the man's thought clings to his forehead2 for it is his thought that lives and is always present before him1 the thought which takes shape in the stone4 ,the work most nearly related to this in conception is the head that musingly and silently frees itself from a block4 ,la ,pense is a transcendent vision of life that rises slowly out of the heavy sleep of the stone4 ,the ,caryatid is no more the erect figure that bears lightly or unyieldingly the heaviness of the marble4 ,a woman's form kneels crouching1 as though bent by the burden1 the weight of which sinks with a continuous pressure into all the figure's limbs4 ,upon every smallest part of this body the whole stone lies like the insistence of a will that is greater1 older and more powerful1 a pressure1 which it is the fate of this body to continue to endure4 ,the figure bears its burden as we bear the impossible in dreams from which we can find no escape4 ,even the sinking together of the failing figure expresses this pressure2 and when a greater weariness forces the body down to a lying posture1 it will even then still be under the pressure of this weight1 bearing it without end4 ,such is the ,caryatid4 ,one may always explain1 accompany and surround ,rodin's works with thoughts4 ,for all to whom simple contemplation is too difficult and unaccustomed a road to beauty there are other roads1 detours leading to meanings that are noble1 great1 complete4 ,the infinite correctness of these creations1 the perfect balance of all their movements1 the wonderful inward justice of their proportions1 their penetration into life--all that makes them beautiful--gives them the strength of being unsurpassable materializations of the ideas which the master called into being when he named them4 ,rodin lived near his work and1 like the custodian of a ,museum1 continuously evolved from it new meanings4 ,one learns much from his interpretations but in the contemplation of these works1 alone and undisturbed1 one gathers a still fuller and richer understanding of them4 ,where the first suggestion comes from some definite subject1 where an ancient tale1 a passage from a poem1 an historical scene or some real person is the inspiration1 the subject matter transforms itself more and more into reality during the process of the work4 ,translated into the language of the hands1 the interpretations acquire entirely new characteristics which develop into plastic fulfilment4 ,the drawings of ,rodin prepare the way for the sculptural work by transforming and changing the suggestions4 ,in this ,art1 too1 ,rodin has cultivated his own methods of expression4 ,the individuality of these drawings--there are many hundreds of them--presents an independent and original manifestation of his artistic personality4 ,there are from an earlier period water colours with surprisingly strong effects of light and shade1 such as the famous ,homme au ,taureau1 which reminds one of ,rembrandt4 ,the head of the young ,st4 ,jean ,baptiste and the shrieking mask for the ,genius of ,war--all these are sketches and studies which helped the artist to recognize the life of surfaces and their relationship to the atmosphere4 ,there are drawings that are done with a direct certainty1 forms complete in all their contours1 drawn in with many quick strokes of the pen2 there are others enclosed in the melody of a single vibrating outline4 ,rodin1 acceding to the wish of a collector1 has illustrated with his drawings one copy of the ,fleurs du ,mal4 ,to speak of expressing a fine understanding of ,baudelaire's verses1 conveys no meaning2 more is conveyed if it is recalled that these poems in their fulness do not admit of supplement4 ,yet in spite of this one feels an enhancement where ,rodin's lines interpret this work1 such is the measure of the overpowering beauty of these drawings4 ,the pen and ink drawing that is placed opposite the poem ,la ,mort des ,pauvres exceeds these great verses with so simple and ever-growing a breadth of meaning that the sweep of its lines seems to include the universal4 ,this quality of enhancement is also found in the dry-point etchings1 in which the course of infinitely tender lines appears to flow with an absolute accuracy of movement over the underlying essence of form1 like the outer markings of some beautiful crystalline thing4 ,the strange documents of the momentary and of the unnoticeably passing1 originated at this time4 ,rodin assumed that if caught quickly1 the simple movements of the model when he believes himself unobserved1 contain the strength of an expression which is not surmised1 because one is not wont to follow it with intense and constant attention4 ,by not permitting his eyes to leave the model for an instant1 and by allowing his quick and trained hand free play over the drawing paper ,rodin seized an enormous number of never before observed and hitherto unrecorded gestures of which the radiating force of expression was immense4 ,conjoining movements that had been overlooked and unrecognized as a whole1 represented and contained all the directness1 force and warmth of animal life4 ,a brush full of ochre outlined the contours with quickly changing accentuation1 modeled the enclosed surface with such incredible force that the drawing appears like a figure in terra cotta4 ,and again a new depth was discovered full of unsurmised life2 a depth over which echoing steps had passed and which gave its waters only to him whose hands possessed the magic wand that disclosed its secret4 ,in portraiture the pictorial expression of the theme belonged to the preparation from which ,rodin proceeded slowly to the completion of the work4 ,for erroneous as it is to see in ,rodin's plastic art a kind of ,impressionism1 it is the multitude of precisely and boldly seized impressions that is always the great treasure from which he ultimately chooses the important and necessary1 in order to comprehend his work in its perfect synthesis4 ,as he proceeds from the bodies to the faces it must seem to him as though he stepped from a wind-swept distance into a room in which many men are gathered4 ,here everything is crowded and dim and the mood of an interior predominates under the arches of the brow and in the shadows of the mouth4 ,over the bodies there is always change1 an ebb and flood like the dashing of waves4 ,the faces possess an atmosphere like that of rooms in which many things have happened1 joyous and tragic incidents1 experiences deadening or full of expectation4 ,no event has entirely passed1 none has taken the place of the other1 one has been placed beside the other and has remained there and has withered like a flower in a glass4 ,but he who comes from the open out of the great wind brings distance into the room4 ,the mask of ,the ,man with the ,broken ,nose was the first portrait that ,rodin modeled4 ,in this work his individual manner of portraying a face is entirely formed4 ,one feels his admitted devotion to reality1 his reverence for every line that fate has drawn1 his confidence in life that creates even where it disfigures4 ,in a kind of blind faith he sculptured ,l',homme au ,nez ,cass without asking who the man was who lived again in his hands4 ,he made this mask as ,god created the first man1 without intention of presenting anything save ,life itself--immeasurable ,life4 ,but he returned to the faces of men with an ever-growing1 richer and greater knowledge4 ,he could not look upon their features without thinking of the days that had left their impress upon them1 without dwelling upon the army of thoughts that worked incessantly upon a face1 as though it could never be finished4 ,from a silent and conscientious observation of life1 the mature man1 at first groping and experimenting1 became more and more sure and audacious in his understanding and interpretation of the script with which the faces were covered4 ,he did not give rein to his imagination1 he did not invent1 he did not neglect for a moment the hard struggle with his tools4 ,it would have been easy to surmount1 as if with wings1 these difficulties4 ,he walked side by side with his work over the far and distant stretches that had to be covered1 like the plough-man behind his plough4 ,while he traced his furrows1 he meditated over his land1 the depth of it1 the sky above it1 the flights of the winds and the fall of the rains2 considered all that existed and passed by and returned and ceased not to be4 ,he recognized in all this the eternal1 and becoming less and less perplexed by the many things1 he perceived the one great thing for which grief was good1 and heaviness promised maternity1 and pain became beautiful4 ,the interpretation of this perception began with the portraits1 and from that time penetrated ever deeper into his work4 ,it is the last step1 the last cycle in his development4 ,rodin began slowly and with infinite precaution entered upon this new road4 ,he advanced from surface to surface following ,nature's laws4 ,nature herself pointed out to him1 as it were1 the places in which he saw more than was visible4 ,he evolved one great simplification out of many confusions as ,christ brought unity into the confusion of a guilty people by the revelation of a sublime parable4 ,he fulfilled an intention of nature1 completed something that was helpless in its growth4 ,he disclosed the coherences as a clear evening following a misty day unveils the mountains which rise in great waves out of the far distance4 ,full of the vital abundance of his knowledge1 he penetrated into the faces of those that lived about him1 like a prophet of the future4 ,this intuitive quality gives to his portraits the clear accuracy and at the same time the prophetic greatness which rises to such indescribable perfection in the figures of ,victor ,hugo and of ,balzac4 ,to create an image meant to ,rodin to seek eternity in a countenance1 that part of eternity with which the face was allied in the great course of things eternal4 ,each face that he has modeled he has lifted out of the bondage of the present into the freedom of the future1 as one holds a thing up toward the light of the sky in order to understand its purer and simpler forms4 ,rodin's conception of ,art was not to beautify or to give a characteristic expression1 but to separate the lasting from the transitory1 to sit in judgment1 to be just4 ,beside the etchings1 his portrait work embraces a great number of finished and masterly drawings4 ,there are busts in plaster1 in bronze1 in marble and in sand-stone1 heads and masks in terra cotta4 ,portraits of women occur again and again through all the periods of his work4 ,the famous bust of the ,luxembourg is one of the earliest4 ,this bust is full of individual life1 of a certain beautiful1 womanly charm1 but it is surpassed in simplicity and concentration by many later works4 ,it is1 perhaps1 the only bust which possesses a beauty not absolutely characteristic of ,rodin's work4 ,this portrait survives partly because of a certain graciousness which has been hereditary for centuries in ,french plastic art4 ,it shines somewhat with the elegance of the inferior sculptures of ,french tradition2 it is not quite free from that gallant conception of the belle femme beyond which the serious and the deeply penetrating work of ,rodin grew so quickly4 ,one should remember that he had to overcome the ancestral conception1 had to suppress an inborn capacity for this flowing grace in order to begin his work quite simply4 ,he must not cease to be a ,frenchman2 the master builders of the cathedrals were also ,frenchmen4 ,his later sculptures of women have a different beauty1 more deeply founded and less traditional4 ,rodin has1 for the most part1 executed portraits of foreign women1 especially ,american women4 ,there are among these busts some of wonderful craftsmanship1 marbles that are like pure and perfect antique cameos4 ,faces whose smiles play softly over the features like veils that seem to rise and fall with every breath2 strangely half-closed lips and eyes which seem to look dreamily into the bright effulgence of an everlasting moonlit night4 ,to ,rodin the face of a woman seems to be a part of her beautiful body4 ,he conceives the eyes of the face to be eyes of the body1 and the mouth the mouth of the body4 ,when he creates both face and body as a whole1 the face radiates so vital an expression of life that these portraits of women seem prophetic4 ,the portraits of men are different4 ,the essence of a man can be more easily imagined to be concentrated within the limits of his face2 there are moments of calm and of inward excitement in which all life seems to have entered into his face4 ,rodin chooses or rather creates these moments when he models a man's portrait4 ,he searches far back for individuality or character1 does not yield to the first impression1 nor to the second1 nor to any of those following4 ,he observes and makes notes2 he records almost unnoticeable moments1 turnings and semi-turnings of many profiles from many perspectives4 ,he surprises his model in relaxation and in effort1 in his habitual as well as in his impulsive expressions2 he catches expressions which are but suggested4 ,he comprehends transitions in all their phases1 knows from whence the smile comes and why it fades4 ,the face of man is to him like a scene in a drama in which he himself takes part4 ,nothing that occurs is indifferent to him or escapes him4 ,he does not urge the model to tell him anything1 he does not wish to know aught save that which he sees4 ,he sees everything4 ,thus a long time passes during the creation of each work4 ,the conception evolves partly through drawings1 seized with a few strokes of the pen or a few lines of the brush1 partly from memory4 ,for ,rodin has trained his memory to be a means of assistance as dependable as it is comprehensive4 ,during the hours in which the model poses he perceives much more than he can execute4 ,often after the model has left him the real work begins to take form from out the fulness of his memory4 ,the impressions do not change within it but accustom themselves to their dwelling-place and rise from it into his hands as though they were the natural gestures of these hands4 ,this manner of work leads to an intense comprehension of hundreds and hundreds of moments of life4 ,and such is the impression produced by these busts4 ,the many wide contrasts and the unexpected changes which comprise man and man's continuous development here join together with an inner strength4 ,all the heights and depths of being1 all the climates of temperament of these men are concentrated and unfold themselves on the hemispheres of their heads4 ,there is the bust of ,dalou in whom a nervous fatigue vibrates side by side with a tenacious energy4 ,there is ,henry ,rochefort's adventurous mask1 and there is ,octave ,mirabeau in whom behind a man of action dawns a poet's dream and longing1 and ,puvis de ,chavannes1 and ,victor ,hugo whom ,rodin knows so well2 and there is above all the indescribably beautiful bronze portrait bust of the painter ,jean ,paul ,laurens which is1 perhaps1 the most beautiful thing in the ,luxembourg ,museum4 ,this bust is penetrated by such deep feeling1 there is such tender modeling of the surface1 it is so fine in carriage1 so intense in expression1 so moved and so awake that it seems as if ,nature had taken this work out of the sculptor's hands to claim it as one of her most precious possessions4 ,the gleam and sparkle of the metal that breaks like fire through the smoke-black patina coating adds much to make perfect the unique beauty of this work4 ,there is also a bust of ,bastien ,lepage1 beautiful and melancholy with the expression of the suffering of the man whose realization is a continuous departure from his conception4 ,this bust was executed for ,damvillers1 the little home village of the painter1 and was placed there in the churchyard as a monument4 ,in their breadth of conception these busts of ,rodin's have something of the monumental in them4 ,to this quality is added a greater simplification of the surfaces1 and a still more severe choice of the necessary with a view to perspective and placement4 ,the monuments which ,rodin has created approach more and more these requirements4 ,he began with the monument of ,claude ,gele for ,nancy1 and there is a steep ascent from this first interesting production to the grandiose triumph of ,balzac4 ,several of the monuments by ,rodin were sent to ,america4 ,the most mature of them was destroyed during the disturbances in ,chile before it reached its destination4 ,this was the equestrian statue of ,general ,lynch4 ,like the lost masterpiece of ,leonardo1 which it resembled perhaps in the force of expression and in the wonderfully vital unity of man and horse1 this statue was not to be preserved4 ,a small copy in plaster in ,rodin's museum at ,meudon shows that it was the plastic portrait of a lean man who rises commandingly in his saddle1 not in the brutal1 tyrannical manner of a condottiere but with the nervous excitement of one who exercises the power of command only in office but who is not ordinarily wont to use this authority4 ,the forward-pointing hand of the ,general rises out of the mass of the monument1 out of man and animal4 ,this gesture of command gives to the statue of ,victor ,hugo its memorable power and majesty4 ,the gesture of the aged man's strong1 live hand raised commandingly toward the ocean does not come from the poet alone but descends from the summit of the whole group as though from a mountain on which it had prayed before it spoke4 ,victor ,hugo is here the exile1 the solitary of ,guernsey4 ,the muses that surround him are like thoughts of his solitude become visible4 ,rodin has conveyed this impression through the intensification and concentration of the figures about the poet4 ,by converging the points of contact ,rodin has succeeded in creating the impression that these wonderfully vibrant figures are parts of the sitting man4 ,they move about him like great gestures made some time during his life1 gestures that were so beautiful and young that a goddess granted them the grace not to perish but to endure for ever in the forms of beautiful women4 ,rodin made sketches and studies of the figure of the poet4 ,at the time of the receptions in the ,hotel ,lusignan he observed from a window and made notes of hundreds and hundreds of movements and of the changing expressions of the animated face of the old man4 ,these preparations resulted in the several portraits of ,hugo which ,rodin modeled4 ,the monument itself embodied a still deeper interpretation4 ,all these single impressions he gathered together1 and as ,homer created a perfect poem out of many rhapsodies1 so he created from all the pictures in his memory1 this one portrait4 ,and to this last picture he gave the greatness of the legendary4 ,myth-like it might return to a fantastically towering rock in the sea in whose strange forms far-removed peoples see life asleep4 ,the most supreme instance of ,rodin's power of exalting a past event to the height of the imperishable1 whenever historical subjects or forms demand to live again in his art1 is found perhaps in ,the ,citizens of ,calais4 ,the suggestion for this group was taken from a few passages in the chronicles of ,froissart that tell the story of the ,city of ,calais at the time it was besieged by the ,english king1 ,edward the ,third4 ,the king1 not willing to withdraw from the city1 then on the verge of starvation1 ultimately consents to release it if six of its most noble citizens deliver themselves into the hands that he may do with them according to his will4 ,he demands that they leave the city bare-headed1 clad only in their shirts1 with a rope about their necks and the keys of the city and of the citadel in their hands4 ,the chronicler describes the scene in the city4 ,he relates how the burgomaster1 ,messire ,jean de ,vienne1 orders the bells to be rung and the citizens to assemble in the market place4 ,they hear the final message and wait in expectation and in silence4 ,then heroes rise among them1 the chosen ones1 who feel the call to die4 ,the wailing and weeping of the multitude rises from the words of the chronicler1 who seems to be touched for the moment and to write with a trembling pen4 ,but he composes himself once more and mentions four of the heroes by name2 two of the names he forgets4 ,he says that one man was the wealthiest citizen of the city and that another possessed authority and wealth and had two beautiful maidens for daughters2 of the third he only knows that he was rich in possessions and heritage1 and of the fourth that he was the brother of the third4 ,he reports that they removed all their clothing save their shirts1 that they tied ropes about their necks and thus departed with the keys of the city and of the citadel4 ,he tells how they came to the ,king's camp and of how harshly the ,king received them and how the executioner stood beside them when the ,king1 at the request of the ,queen1 gave them back their lives4 ,he listened to his wife1 says ,froissart1 because she was very pregnant4 ,the chronicle does not continue further4 ,for ,rodin this was sufficient material4 ,he felt immediately that there was a moment in this story when something portentous took place1 something independent of time and place1 something simple1 something great4 ,he concentrated all his attention upon the moment of the departure4 ,he saw how the men started on their way1 he felt how through each one of them pulsated once more his entire past life1 he realized how each one stood there prepared to give that life for the sake of the old city4 ,six men rose before him1 of whom no two were alike1 only two brothers were among them between whom there was1 possibly1 a certain similarity4 ,but each of them had resolved to live his last hour in his own way1 to celebrate it with his soul and to suffer for it with his body1 which clung to life4 ,rodin then no longer saw the forms of these men4 ,gestures rose before him1 gestures of renunciation1 of farewell1 of resignation4 ,gestures over gestures4 ,he gathered them together and gave them form4 ,they thronged about him out of the fulness of his knowledge1 a hundred heroes rose in his memory and demanded to be sacrificed4 ,and he concentrated this hundred into six4 ,he modeled them each by himself in heroic size to represent the greatness of their resolution1 modeled them nude in the appeal of their shivering bodies4 ,he created the old man with loose-jointed hanging arms and heavy dragging step1 and gave him the worn-out walk of old men and an expression of weariness that flows over his face into the beard4 ,he created the man that carries the key1 the man who would have lived for many years to come1 but whose life is condensed into this sudden last hour which he can hardly bear4 ,his lips are tightly pressed together1 his hands bite into the key4 ,there is fire in his strength and it burns in his defiant bearing4 ,he created the man who holds his bent head with both hands to compose himself1 to be once more alone4 ,he created the two brothers1 one of whom looks backward while the other bends his head with a movement of resolution and submission as though he offered it to the executioner4 ,he created the man with the vague gesture whom ,gustave ,geffroy has called ,le ,passant4 ,this man moves forward1 but he turns back once more1 not to the city1 not to those who are weeping1 and not to those who go with him3 he turns back to himself4 ,his right arm is raised1 bent1 vacillating4 ,his hands open in the air as though to let something go1 as one gives freedom to a bird4 ,this gesture is symbolic of a departure from all uncertainty1 from a happiness that has not yet been1 from a grief that will now wait in vain1 from men who live somewhere and whom he might have met some time1 from all possibilities of to-morrow and the day after to-morrow2 and from ,death which he had thought far distant1 that he had imagined would come mildly and softly and at the end of a long1 long time4 ,this figure1 if placed by itself in a dim1 old garden1 would be a monument for all who have died young4 ,thus ,rodin has made each of these men live again the last concentrated moment of life4 ,each figure is majestic in its simple greatness4 ,they bring to mind ,donatello and1 perhaps1 ,claux ,sluter and his prophets in the ,chartreuse of ,dijon4 ,it seems at first as though ,rodin had done nothing more than gather them together4 ,he has given them the same attire1 the shirt and the rope1 and has placed them together in two rows3 the three that are in the first row1 are about to start forward1 the other three turn to the right and follow behind4 ,the place that was decided upon for the erection of the monument was the market place of ,calais1 the same spot from which the tragic procession had formerly started4 ,there the silent group was to stand1 raised by a low step above the common life of the market place as though the fearful departure were always pending4 ,the ,city of ,calais refused to accept a low pedestal because it was contrary to custom4 ,rodin then suggested that a square tower1 two stories high and with simply-cut walls1 be built near the ocean and there the six citizens should be placed1 surrounded by the solitude of the wind and the sky4 ,this plan1 as might have been expected1 was declined1 although it was in harmony with the character of the work4 ,if the trial had been made1 there would have been an incomparable opportunity for observing the unity of the group1 which1 although it consisted of single figures1 held closely together as a whole4 ,the figures do not touch one another1 but stand side by side like the last trees of a hewn-down forest united only by the surrounding atmosphere4 ,from every point of view the gestures stand out clear and great from the dashing waves of the contours2 they rise and fall back into the mass of stone like flags that are furled4 ,the entire impression of this group is precise and clear4 ,like all of ,rodin's compositions1 this one1 too1 appears to be a pulsating world enclosed within its own boundaries4 ,beside the points of actual contact there is a kind of contact produced by the surrounding atmosphere which diminishes1 influences and changes the character of the group4 ,contact may exist between objects far distant from one another1 like the conflux of forms such as one sees sometimes in masses of clouds1 where the interjacent air is no separating abyss1 but rather a transition1 a softly-graduated conjunction4 ,to ,rodin the participation of the atmosphere in the composition has always been of greatest importance4 ,he has adapted all his figures1 surface after surface1 to their particular space and environment2 this gives them the greatness and independence1 the marvelous completeness and life which distinguishes them from all other works4 ,when interpreting nature he found1 as he intensified an expression1 that1 at the same time1 he enhanced the relationship of the atmosphere to his work to such a degree that the surrounding air seemed to give more life1 more passion1 as it were1 to the embraced surfaces4 ,a similar effect may be observed in some of the animals on the cathedrals to which the air relates itself in strange fashion2 it seems to become calm or storm according to whether it sweeps over emphasized or level surfaces4 ,when ,rodin concentrates the surfaces of his works into culminating points1 when he uplifts to greater height the exalted or gives more depth to a cavity1 he creates an effect like that which atmosphere produces on monuments that have been exposed to it for centuries4 ,the atmosphere has traced deeper lines upon these monuments1 has shadowed them with veils of dust1 has seasoned them with rain and frost1 with sun and storm1 and has thus endowed them with endurance so that they may remain imperishable through many slowly-passing dusks and dawn4 ,this effect of atmosphere1 which is the monumental principle of ,rodin's art1 is wonderfully achieved in ,the ,citizens of ,calais4 ,these sculptural forms seen from a distance are not only surrounded by the immediate atmosphere1 but by the whole sky2 they catch on their surfaces as with a mirror its moving distances so that a great gesture seems to live and to force space to participate in its movement4 ,this impression is conveyed also by the figure of the slender youth who kneels with outstretched1 imploring arms4 ,rodin has called this figure ,the ,prodigal ,son1 but it has recently received the name--from whom or from whence no one knows--of ,prire4 ,the gesture of this figure raises it even beyond this name4 ,this is no son kneeling before his father4 ,a ,god is necessary to him who thus implores and in him are all who need this ,god4 ,this ,prayer in stone reaches out to such distance that the figure seems to be withdrawn into a great isolation4 ,such1 too1 is the ,balzac to whom ,rodin has given a greatness which1 perhaps1 overtowers the figure of the writer4 ,rodin has seized upon the essence of ,balzac's being1 has not confined himself to the limitations of his personality1 but has gone beyond into his most extreme and distant possibilities4 ,these mighty contours might have been formed in the tombstones of by-gone nations4 ,for years ,rodin was entirely absorbed in this figure4 ,he visited ,balzac's home1 he went to the landscapes of the ,touraine that rise continually in ,balzac's books2 he read his letters1 he studied the portraits of ,balzac and he read his works again and again4 ,on all the intricate and intertwining roads of these works he was met by the people of ,balzac1 whole families and generations1 a world that still seemed to receive life from its creator4 ,rodin saw that all these thousands of people1 no matter what their occupation or their life1 contained him who had created them4 ,as one may perceive the character and the mood of a play through the faces of an audience1 so he sought in all these faces him who still lived in them4 ,he believed like ,balzac in the reality of his world and he became for a time a part of it4 ,he lived as though ,balzac had created him also1 and he dwelt unnoticed among the multitude of his people4 ,thus he gathered his impressions4 ,the actual world appeared at this time vague and unimportant4 ,the daguerreotypes of ,balzac offered only general suggestions and nothing new4 ,the face which they represented was the one he had known from boyhood days4 ,the one that had been in the possession of ,stphan ,mallarm1 which showed ,balzac without coat and suspenders1 was the only one which was more characteristic4 ,reminiscences of contemporaries helped him2 the words of ,thophile ,gautier1 the notes of the ,goncourts1 and the beautiful essay by ,lamartine4 ,beside these pen portraits there was only the bust by ,david in the ,comdie ,franaise and a small picture by ,louis ,boulanger4 ,completely filled with the spirit of ,balzac1 ,rodin1 with the aid of these auxiliaries1 began to model the figure of the writer4 ,he used living models of similar proportions and completed seven perfectly executed portraits in different positions4 ,the models were thick-set1 medium-sized men with heavy limbs and short arms4 ,after these studies he created a ,balzac much like the one in ,nadar's daguerreotype4 ,but he felt this was not final4 ,he returned to the description of ,lamartine1 to the lines3 ,he had the face of an element1 and he possessed so much soul that his heavy body seemed not to exist4 ,rodin felt that a great part of his task was suggested in these sentences4 ,he approached nearer its solution by dothing the seven figures with monk's cowls1 the kind of garment that ,balzac was wont to wear while at work4 ,he created a ,balzac with a hood1 a garb much too intimate1 the figure much too retired into the stillness of its disguise4 ,rodin slowly developed form after form4 ,at last he saw ,balzac4 ,he saw a mighty1 striding figure that lost all its heaviness in the fall of its ample cloak4 ,the hair brisded from the nape of the powerful neck4 ,and backward against the thick locks leaned the face of a visionary in the intoxication of his dream1 a face flashing with creative force3 the face of an element4 ,this was ,balzac in the fulness of his productivity1 the founder of generations1 the waster of fates4 ,this was the man whose eyes were those of a seer1 whose visions would have filled the world had it been empty4 ,this was the ,balzac that ,creation itself had formed to manifest itself and who was ,creation's boastfulness1 vanity1 ecstasy and intoxication4 ,the thrown-back head crowned the summit of this figure as lightly as a ball is upheld by the spray of a fountain4 ,there was no sense of weight1 but a magnificent vitality in the free1 strong head4 ,rodin had seen in a moment of large comprehension and tragic exaggeration his ,balzac and thus he created him4 ,the vision did not fade1 it only changed4 ,the comprehensiveness which gave breadth to ,rodin's monumental works gave to the others also a new beauty2 it gave them a peculiar nearness4 ,there are among the more recent works small groups that are striking because of their concentration and the wonderful treatment of the marble4 ,the stones preserve1 even in the midst of the day1 that mysterious shimmer which white things exhale in the twilight4 ,this radiance is not the result of the vibrant quality of the points of contact alone1 but is due in part to the flat ribbands of stone that lie between the figures like small bridges which connect one form with the other over the deepest clefts in the modeling4 ,these ribband fillings are not incidental1 but are placed there to prevent too sharp an outline4 ,they preserve in the forms that otherwise would appear too clear cut an effect of roundness2 they gather the light like vases that gently and continuously overflow4 ,when ,rodin seeks to condense the atmosphere about the surfaces of his works1 the stone appears to almost dissolve in the air1 the marble is the compact1 fruitful kernel1 and its last softest contour the vibrating air4 ,the light touching the marble loses its will1 it does not penetrate into the stone1 but nestles close1 lingers1 dwells in the stone4 ,this closing up of unessential clefts is an approach to the relief4 ,rodin planned a great work in relief in which there were to be effects of light such as he achieved in the smaller groups4 ,he constructed a column about which a broad ribband of relief winds upward4 ,this encircling ribband conceals a staircase which ascends under arched vaultings4 ,the figures in this ascending relief are modeled and placed so as to receive an effect of life and vibrance from the atmosphere and lighting4 ,a plastic art will some time rise which will disclose the secret of twilight as it is related to those sculptures that stand in the vestibules of old cathedrals4 ,this ,monument of ,work represents a history of work which develops upon these slowly rising reliefs4 ,the long line begins in a lower chamber or crypt with the figures of those who have grown old in mines4 ,the procession traces its steps through all the phases of work1 from those who work in the roar and red glow of furnaces to those who work in silence in the light of a great idea3 from the hammers to the brains4 ,two figures guard the entrance1 ,day and ,night1 and upon the summit of this tower stand two winged forms to symbolize the ,blessings descending from the luminous heights4 ,rodin did not conceive work as a monumental figure or a great gesture2 for work is something near1 it takes place in the shops1 in the rooms1 in the heads1 in the dark4 ,he knows1 for he1 too1 worked2 he worked incessantly2 his life passed like a single working day4 ,rodin had several studios1 some that are well-known in which visitors and letters found him4 ,there were others in out-of-the-way1 secluded places of which no one knew4 ,these rooms were like cells1 bare1 poor and grey with dust1 but their poverty was like the great1 grey poverty of ,god out of which trees bud in ,march4 ,something of the ,spring was in each of these rooms1 a silent promise and a deep seriousness4 ,in one of these studios ,the ,tower of ,work has risen4 ,now that it is accomplished1 it is time to speak of its significance4 ,some time after this monument has been erected it will be recognized that ,rodin willed nothing that was beyond his art4 ,the body of work here manifests itself as did formerly the body of love3--it is a new revelation of life4 ,this creator lived so completely in his conceptions1 so entirely in the depths of his work1 that inspiration or revelation came to him only through the medium of his art4 ,new life in the ultimate sense meant to him1 new surfaces1 new gestures4 ,thus to him the meaning of life became simple1 he could err no more4 ,with his own development ,rodin has given an impetus to all the arts in this confused age4 ,some time it will be realized what has made this great artist so supreme4 ,he was a worker whose only desire was to penetrate with all his forces into the humble and difficult significance of his tools4 ,therein lay a certain renunciation of ,life1 but in just this renunciation lay his triumph1 for ,life entered into his work4