Portal de Murcia
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Obra Social "la Caixa" and the city of Murcia have seven monumental sculptures by the French master in the context of the Street Art Foundation "la Caixa"
President of the Region of Murcia, Ramón Luis Valcárcel, the mayor of Murcia, Miguel Angel Camara, Regional Executive Director "la Caixa" Levante and Murcia, Bibiano Martinez, in charge of exhibitions at the Musée Rodin in Paris, Audrey d 'Hendecourt, and the secretary general of the Fundación "la Caixa" Lluís Reverter, today inaugurated the exhibition Auguste Rodin in Murcia, which demonstrates the modernity of the artist, who opted to expose their outdoor sculptures.
The main objective of Rodin's works was closer to the walker, everyone.
And, when the sculpture "invades" the city, there is another reason: when you choose to place Rodin's monumental group of the Burghers of Calais on a high pedestal for the sculpture was cut against the sky, or when, instead , does so on a pedestal too low "for the public to penetrate the essence of the subject, as in the graves of the churches," the artist's intention is always seeking harmony between place and representation, thinking of the viewer .
The city of Murcia is now in the exhibition space of the work of Rodin.
The Plaza de Santo Domingo, its residents and visitors live and unedited form a framework for these monumental statues.
The place has its own memory, and sculpture universality, and this convergence is the work a new reading.
Auguste Rodin
Rodin (Paris, 1840 - Meudon, 1917) began his artistic training at the age of fourteen years of labor and Louis Lecoq de Boisbaudran Fort Pierre Gustave Imperial School Special.
After a brief period in a religious order, he returned to lay life to follow the courses of Barye at the Museum and started working in the studio of Carrier-Belleuse.
The trip to Italy in 1875 allowed him to observe the classics, especially Michelangelo, and from that time was devoted to continuously create eternal forms, such as The Age of Bronze, Man walking or San Juan Bautista, in a very personal universe.
In the late nineteenth century his prestige rose considerably and was commissioned to make a monumental bronze door intended for the future Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris.
Rodin was inspired by Dante's imagination to create The Gates of Hell and represented scenes like Ugolino's agony and distorted figures that symbolized the damned.
During this time, Rodin received several commissions as The Burghers of Calais or monuments to Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac.
In 1890, along with Carrière, Puvis de Chavannes, and Messonier Dalou, founded the National Society of Fine Arts.
Rodin's role in the artistic context of the time is very important.
Portrayed his friends and celebrities from the world of art, literature and politics, and always embodied a personal and human dimension in his works.
From 1908 began a series of sculptures focus on body movement dancing, entranced by the freedom of gestures and postures.
Overall, the work of Rodin, located at the turn of the century, offers a variety of styles, materials and media.
The artist created freely, using multiple combinations and developing original concepts which today remain a reference for contemporary art.
The Thinker
From 1880, the date of the order of The Gates of Hell, Rodin thought of the composition include a picture of Dante to dominate the gate and contemplated under their feet the development of the tragedy of the Divine Comedy.
This figure, originally titled The Poet, The Thinker became.
In 1904 the artist explained this transformation: "The Thinker has a story.
In distant days and was coming up with Hell's Gate.
In front of this door, sitting on a rock, Dante, absorbed in deep meditation, conceived the plan of his poem.
Behind him were Ugolino, Francesca, Paolo, all the characters of the Commedia.
This project was not carried out.
Thin, ascetic, clad in his robes stiff, my Dante, separated from the whole would have been meaningless.
Following my first inspiration, I created another 'thinker', a naked man crouching on a rock, on which they twist their feet.
With his fist against his teeth, he is thinking.
The fertile thought slowly elaborates it in his brain.
It is definitely not a dreamer, a creator.
I made my own statue. "
In their original size (71 cm high), The Thinker, placed under the Three Shadows, dominates the Gate, the vigorous muscles, inspired by the Belvedere Torso, and the tension of the sculpture internalized refer, as usual, to the lesson of Michelangelo.
Like many figures of The Gates of Hell, The Thinker, indeed, had become a separate subject.
It was exhibited for the first time in Copenhagen, after being increased between 1902 and 1904: the large version in plaster (181 cm) was exposed in 1904 in London, the same year, was presented the bronze in Paris.
The work caused considerable controversy among visitors and between the press room, a group of friends Rodin proposed, some as a challenge to launch a national subscription offer to The Thinker in the city of Paris at its original size .
Rodin chose the Pantheon as an exhibition.
The statue was inaugurated on April 21, 1906 but, prevent the development of the ceremonies, was transferred to the Rodin Museum in 1921.
Another great thinker was erected over the tomb of the sculptor in Meudon.
Monument to the Burghers of Calais
The episode of the heroic devotion of the Burghers of Calais, one of the most famous in the history of France, takes place during the Hundred Years War, which confronted France and England.
In 1347, Edward III besieged the port of Calais in northern France, and declared that he would act with leniency if six notables (the bourgeoisie) accepted surrender before him in his shirt, his head and bare feet and a rope around his neck presenting the keys to the city.
Eustache de Saint-Pierre and five of his colleagues agreed to sacrifice their lives to save the city, but the queen interceded and obtained forgiveness.
Several mayors of Calais, eager to commemorate this unusual act, thought to commission a sculpture that would glorify him.
Various projects were proposed that were not continued, and until 1884 was not re-consider the matter.
That's when Rodin was chosen to do it.
The first sketch shows a group of six heroes mounted on a pedestal as the artistic standards of the time, but the image of the six men killed and resigned and moved away from the heroic group according to the academic tradition of the nineteenth century .
Rodin worked intensively on the project.
The large group model was introduced in 1889 in the Monet-Rodin exhibition turned out to be the cornerstone of all those submitted.
However, the mayor of Calais had retired in 1885 and the committee for the erection of the statue was broken in 1886.
Furthermore, the design of Rodin had evolved considerably.
The proposal submitted to the effect of removing the base of the statue brought him great reproaches of those who commissioned it.
The sculptor intended, in effect, an original vision, very advanced for its time, to violate the normal rules governing the monumental statues, "the group, to make it impressive, must be installed at ground level, so that it can understand better the look of misery and sacrifice of the drama. "
The project was resumed in 1893.
Finally, having met and the funds, the monument (which weighs over two tons) was inaugurated on June 3, 1895 but, unfortunately, was placed on a pedestal in the center of a small garden: "I wanted to seal my statues , one after the other in front of the City of Calais, at the level of the slabs of the square, as a living rosary of suffering and sacrifice.
I think it would have taken a significant toll.
But they rejected my project and imposed a pedestal as ugly as superfluous. "
Only at the end of the Second World War the city of Calais respected the will of the sculptor and introduced the group to ground level, as can be seen in Paris, Philadelphia and Tokyo.
In fact, the general idea of ​​Rodin us enter at ground level in the drama unfolding before our eyes was too revolutionary as not to clash with the official taste which governed the destinies of the arts during the Third Republic.
If we examine the six figures one by one, this impression merely confirmed: Eustache de Saint-Pierre, the old, strongly and guide the group of six heroes, Jean d'Aire, air resolved, virile, carries keys to the city that is about to offer the King of England as a sign of vassalage; Andrieu d'Andres, his head between his hands, expresses the desperation of renunciation heroic Pierre de Wissant shows a moment of hesitation when directed with the group to death, his brother Jacques de Wissant walks towards an inevitable fate, and finally, Jean de Fiennes, opening his arms, symbolizing youth sacrificed to the heroic act.
Rodin, who opposes any anecdotal or superfluous confession and rejects the academic type, has a powerful and unique work of universal character.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Murcia
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