Rodin's lovers
Auguste Rodin's large marble sculpture of two naked lovers fused in passion, known as Le Baiser...The Kiss.
Here, I chose to present just part of the famous sculpture, with discrete focus on their coupling. In my eyes, providing them some privacy for this most emotive moment.
Rodin's lovers appear timeless to me. A representation of infatuation, oblivious to all else. But their love was doomed. They are Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Polenta (originally as reliefs from Rodin's monumental bronze Gates of Hell, based on Dante's Divine Comedy). They were discovered by Francesca's husband and killed by him.
The couple pass in to Hell, through the Circle of the Lustful, where the souls of sinners who gave themselves over to sexual pleasures are punished by being transformed in to a 'whirling cyclone'.
Three life-size versions of the sculpture were executed in Rodin's lifetime. The earliest is this one here in the collection of the Musée Rodin, within the Hôtel Biron, a magnificent 18th century palace that the sculptor used as his Paris studio until his death in 1917.
Le Baiser 1888. Marble 1.82m x 1.16 m x 121 m.
Link to exterior of Musée Rodin: www.flickr.com/photos/112623317@N03/51941066998/in/photol...
© All rights reserved.
Rodin's lovers
Auguste Rodin's large marble sculpture of two naked lovers fused in passion, known as Le Baiser...The Kiss.
Here, I chose to present just part of the famous sculpture, with discrete focus on their coupling. In my eyes, providing them some privacy for this most emotive moment.
Rodin's lovers appear timeless to me. A representation of infatuation, oblivious to all else. But their love was doomed. They are Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Polenta (originally as reliefs from Rodin's monumental bronze Gates of Hell, based on Dante's Divine Comedy). They were discovered by Francesca's husband and killed by him.
The couple pass in to Hell, through the Circle of the Lustful, where the souls of sinners who gave themselves over to sexual pleasures are punished by being transformed in to a 'whirling cyclone'.
Three life-size versions of the sculpture were executed in Rodin's lifetime. The earliest is this one here in the collection of the Musée Rodin, within the Hôtel Biron, a magnificent 18th century palace that the sculptor used as his Paris studio until his death in 1917.
Le Baiser 1888. Marble 1.82m x 1.16 m x 121 m.
Link to exterior of Musée Rodin: www.flickr.com/photos/112623317@N03/51941066998/in/photol...
© All rights reserved.