I chose Auguste Rodin’s The Thought as the artwork to write about in this paper. This paper will introduce the style, context, and subject of Rodin’s The Thought. Besides that, the paper will also demonstrate that although Rodin is considered as forerunner of modern sculpture, he didn’t reject elements of great artists of the past.
Auguste Rodin, an outstanding French sculptor. Rodin is generally considered as the pioneer of modern sculpture, though he did not reject the elements of antiquity, the Renaissance, and great artists of the past. Auguste Rodin was born into a working-class family on 12 November 1840 in Paris. Rodin’s father, Jean-Baptiste, who was an office staff working at a police office. Besides that, Jean-Baptiste was also a
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The main aim of the Petite Ecole was training professional artisans rather than artists. At the Petite Ecole, Rodin encountered the first person who had great influence on his latter art career, Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, who based his teaching on observation of daily life and development of visual memory. Rodin expressed his appreciation to his teacher in 1913. The lesson that Rodin learned from his teacher might be the part of reasons that he preferred taking figures directly from living person and contemporary theme rather than following traditional representations of biblical and mythological subjects. In 1857, Rodin tried to enter the Beaux-art which is one of the most prestigious art school in France, he passed the drawing test but failed in sculpture. Rodin tried two more times in 1858 and 1859, and both attempts ended in failure. Due to the result of this frustration and pressure to make his living, at his eighteen, Rodin started his artistic career as a decorators and commercial sculptor about twenty years. During this period of time, Rodin had plenty of opportunities to apply knowledge that he had acquired …show more content…
The experience of working as an artisan enabled Rodin to master almost all skills that needed for a sculptor, which also made Rodin became a prolific artist. In 1875, Rodin made a trip to Italy. This trip had a profound influence on Rodin’s artistic development. In Italy, Rodin was deeply attracted by the work of Michelangelo and Donatello. After Rodin returned to Paris in 1877, he gradually stopped working as a commercial sculptor and started his independent composition. Rodin’s first major Sculpture which known as The Age of Bronze was initially criticized of having made the sculpture by molding it from a live model. Finally, his reputation was restored, and the statue was bought by the French government. The same thing also happened to his second sculpture, the walking state of Saint John the Baptist.
In 1883, Rodin first encountered Camille Claudel who later became his pupil, collaborator, lover, and subject of Rodin’s artworks. Both Rodin and Camille greatly benefited from their encounter. In the view of Rodin, for a long time, he had been looking for a girl like Camille who had gift on sculpture and were able to receive teaching from Rodin. In Camille’s part, Rodin was a master in the art of sculpture. Rodin
The quote above, perfectly describes the kind of person Rodin was, and the type of art he produced. Rodin is known as a very proactive, persevering, and innovative man from history. One of Rodin’s most amazing sculptures, The Thinker, is renowned as one of the most innovative and inspiring art pieces ever created. This magnificent and fascinating sculpture was so influential because of its themes of mental creativity, intellect, and spirituality. Even though this piece is so well known and inspiring, many people still struggle to identify what exactly this piece says about human nature. In order for one to discover what this sculpture says about human nature, one must take into account the time period the art piece was created in, the author’s influence, and the analysis of the piece. All of the evidence found among these categories related to the sculpture suggest that The Thinker, created by the famous Auguste Rodin, depicts the creativity and spirituality of human nature.
In my examination of the works, I came across a particular sculpture that portrayed both beauty and craftsmanship. A 15th century sculpture (1490), made in Venice, Italy by Tullio Lombardo, shows a life-size figure of Adam. Titled Adam, the work is the most prominent in the gallery mostly because of its 6-foot standing. It immediately caught my attention and gave me a very realistic impression. One beige color and made of marble, Adam is depicted simply, yet the statue has intense emotions. His meaningful glance is seen in the upward and tilted head position. Adam has almost lifeless looking eyes and seems to be staring into the distance. With these sagging eyes, parted lips, and lacking posture I feel Adam’s guilt is displayed in this figure.
Pablo Picasso is one of the most famous and well-documented artists of the twentieth century. Picasso, unlike most painters, is even more special because he did not confine himself to canvas, but also produced sculpture, poetry, and ceramics in profusion. Although much is known about this genius, there is still a lust after more knowledge concerning Picasso, his life and the creative forces that motivated him. This information can be obtained only through a careful study of the events that played out during his lifetime and the ways in which they manifested themselves in his creations (Penrose).
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
The famous sculptor that I chose to write about is Andy Goldsworthy. Andy Goldsworthy was born July 26, 1956 in Cheshire, England. Andy Goldsworthy’s parents name was Fredrick Alan and Muriel Goldsworthy. Andy’s father, Allan Goldsworthy, was a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Leeds. Andy love the outdoors at a young age so he started working on a farm at the age of thirteen in Yorkshire. It says by him working on the farm gave him a better understanding of nature. After working on the farm, he studied at Fine Art at Bradford School of Art and Preston Polytechnic. At Preston Polytechnic, he learned how to turn nature into work of art. He was inspired by Professor Long, who was also an artist. So, he decided to get his Bachelor’s degree in arts.
As I stated in the paper I fell in love with this piece, because of where I grew up and how Rodrigue is able to capture it in every piece of work he has ever done in his great life. Though Rodrigue has passed on his legacy will continue to grow due his wonderful art work and the history behind them. Thank you for the time you took to read this paper and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing
Like most artists, Rodin was not an overnight success. Even though he was rejected numerous times from art schools because of his art style, he prevailed in the end. Rodin, like many artists, got their inspiration from other great and famous artists. In Rodin's case, his inspiration came from Michelangelo. In Rodin's more famous works, one can see the similarities between the two artists' artwork. Rodin's parents were not wealthy, therefore, he was not able to attend an art school of his choice. His father, however, did send him to Petite École, "a training ground for commercial draftsman and practiciens--cutters and finishers of work in stone". At the age of seventeen, Rodin won his first prize for a clay model and he came in second place for one of his drawings. His teachers at Petite École encouraged him to "try for the Grande École des Beaux-Arts". He applied, but was not accepted. Not giving up hope, Rodin applied two more times, but was rejected. Determined to make a living, he worked for a large commercial designer. It was there, that he created numerous objects with his hands; anything from masks of gods to cupids. This is where he began to see that he had a future in what he loved the most, art. Even though Rodin was an artist, his career did not take off so soon. When he was 22, his sister Maria died. He anguished so much over her death that he decided to leave his art. He quit everything and decided to enter the Order of the Fathers of the Very Holy Sacrament.
It has been said that no artist has ever been as well educated as Rubens. After training with three minor artists in Antwerp. Rubens set off for Italy to complete his education; a position at the court of the Duke of Mantua was quickly accepted and he stayed in Italy for eight years. His job was to travel to all the major artistic collections, especially Rome and Venice painting copies of famous works of art, especially paintings of beautiful women, for the Duke's collection. He was also sent to Spain where he had an opportunity to study the enormous collection of Titian masterworks in the Royal Collection in Madrid. Copying the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance especially and the recently unearthed sculptures of classical antiquity, Rubens sketched and painted and encompassed all that was best in Italian and Classical art. Rubens combined the lessons of Antique Sculpture with the vaunting ambition of the High Renaissance giants in an unprecedented way. He used the plastic lessons of sculpture as a composition model but insisted that flesh should look like flesh in a painting thus developing his breakthrough approach to the naked body. In this he never forgot the earthy luminous realism of the old Netherlandish tradition of the 15th and 16th century (Van Eyck, Van Weyden, Breughel). You won't appreciate Rubens the master of the female nude until you consider that he was the greatest influence on French painting from the 18th to the 20th century: Watteau, Fragonard, Delacroix, and Renoir were his among his loyal followers.
This paper will explore Vladimir Tatlin and Naum Gabo differences on the role of the Avant-Garde artists and how their beliefs influence the kind of work they produced. A pioneer of Russian design Vladimir Tatlin is a representative of Russian Realism. He left home when he was fifteen and served on the shipboard. When he became a painter, he often represented sailors in his pictures Art and culture in Russia after Revolution was a tool for creating industrially aesthetical reality. Tatlin’s project The Monument to the Third International (1920) one that so much can be considered an architectural work as a sculptural piece, it constituted by a spiral of iron that is expanded diagonally and enclosed by walls of glass of a much higher height to that of the Eiffel tower. It was never embodied into life, but this project shows that socialist order propagation was of primary concern for artists of the beginning of 20th century in Russia (Avant-Garde, Tatlin). Thus, in accordance with Tatlin, avant-garde artist transfers ideas of social reality of his modernity. In his project Tatlin wanted to reflect technological progress of post-revolutionary Russia. He was called “artist of great culture, a true master, who is a devoted worker for the proletarian revolution” (Avant-Garde – Abstraction in Constructivism).
A Comparison between The Royal Acquaintances Memi and Sabu and the Statue of Gudea Introduction It is well know, that sculpture is one of the artistic method the ancient ancestors adopted in the preservation of figures and their culture. In a literary meaning, a sculpture is refers to as the art of making two- or three-dimensional representative or abstract forms, especially by carving stone or wood or by casting metal or plaster. (Oxford Dictionary 2013). The history of sculpture can be throw back to the Ancient Greek.
Cultural and political changes such as the spread of Marxism, the rise of psychoanalytical ideas, and the growth of media in the face of technological advancement prompted many artists to reassess notions of art (Farthing). Rejecting the idea that art must realistically depict the word, many artists started to explore abstract ideas such as symbolism and focused more on the representation of emotions or personal subjects they had direct experience or interest in (MoMA). Modernist sculpture cannot be identified by one defining characteristic, rather it encompasses different art movements and represents a pivotal moment for sculptors to investigate different materials, methods of construction and formal elements of sculpture such as form, space and mass. Constantin Brancusi played a major role in developing modernist sculpture, after rejecting Rodin’s naturalism. Brancusi tried to capture the essence of the subject by distilling them down to their most refined and simplified forms. For example, he used a section of the body to represent its entirety, often focusing on the head as he felt that was the most expressive component of a human being. He also emphasized a commitment to the material’s natural properties, using a direct carving
Thesis: The French Revolution transformed not only the French society, but also had a huge influence and marked impact on what the purposes of the arts and their expression were now, making profound changes in what they would supposed to be used for, in the form of the Neoclassic works of art that made their appearance prior to the French Revolution, in which very special emphasis is given to the patriotic, the nationalist feeling, together with a strong sense of self-sacrifice that should be present in every person’s heart.
a shift can be seen from idealized and nearly perfect sculptures to sculptures that had a natural and real feel to them. These newer statues were sculpted with the notion of Realism weighing more than the concept of Idealism. The subjects’ body was not in a state of military attention, they were placed in a more natural, yet still graceful position. Realistic sculptures also did not embellish the muscular physique of the subject; the muscle definition was displayed more subtly and naturally. The weight of Realistic statues is not distributed in a balanced, geometric fashion like the Ideal statues. The Realistic statues balance their weight just as a real person would in motion which gives the sculpture a more graceful and natural
In an article that takes a look at the modernism of Rodin’s work, it is stated that, “Some saw the Age of Bronze as merely one more academic nude, and his subsequent exploration of the expressivity of the human form has been dismissed as little more than pandering to melodrama and sentiment… literature on the sculptor caricatured nineteenth-century sculpture as a wasteland in which Rodin was the solitary oasis, and he was often held up as the only sculptor of any interest comparable to the rapid advances of modern painting” (Getsy 132). Rodin’s work was not interesting simply because he was the only “interesting” sculptor; Rodin’s work was interesting because he had modernized and turned to a new direction. When Rodin created The Age of Bronze in 1876, many critized him for “cheating” by casting his sculpture from a live model; however, after more research and Rodin himself providing evidence of his model, it was clear that this sculpture was in fact not cast from a live model. In order to achieve this level of modernism Rodin had to cast aside all the traditional styles and ideas that had been used in sculpting. This is shown in the article when the author states that Rodin, “Employed and adapted a sophisticated and subtle formal language of the sculptural body.
However, from the beginning of his Poussin’s career, his paintings were easily recognized for his notable prominence on line and contours. This revealed that he was more interested in craftsmanship as well as the spur of the tradition. In his Classicism, the pose, gesture and facial expression of each portrait was important as it depicted the overall meaning without detailed thinking.