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拍品专文
Le Baiser is one of the most iconic sculptures of Auguste Rodin’s entire oeuvre, renowned for its poetic depiction of two young lovers caught in a passionate embrace. Inspired by the tragic love story of Francesca and Paolo Malatesta from Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy, Rodin’s work dramatically portrays the intense desire that has swept through these two figures, causing their bodies to intertwine in an almost spiral formation, as they succumb to their lustful impulses. Through the energy of their expressive poses the sculptor imbues the work with a heightened sense of emotion, capturing a psychological complexity unparalleled in contemporary treatments of the theme.
Rodin’s depiction of the ill-fated lovers was originally conceived as part of his epic project La porte de l’enfer (The Gates of Hell), a monumental gateway commissioned by the French government for the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1880. Inspired by the events of The Divine Comedy, Rodin envisioned a portal in the style of the great Renaissance masters, such as Ghiberti and Donatello, filled with bas-reliefs of scenes from the darkest portion of Dante’s tale – his explorations of the eight circles of hell, as detailed in The Inferno. Le Baiser held a prominent place in early versions of the composition, occupying the lower left side of the vast door. However, by 1885 Rodin had decided that the palpable bliss of the sensually intertwined couple seemed incongruous with the cataclysmic events surrounding them, and removed the pair, developing the motif as an independent, free-standing sculpture instead.
The tale of Francesca and Paolo’s forbidden love appeared in the fifth canto of The Inferno, and was a popular tale amongst nineteenth-century Romantics. Having entered the second circle of hell, where an unrelenting whirlwind torments the spirits of those who have committed sins of the flesh, Dante encounters these two lovers whose illicit affair was infamous throughout Italy in his own day. Francesca was unhappily wed to Gianciotto Malatesta, the lord of Rimini, in a political marriage intended to solidify an uneasy peace that had been struck between their two families. On one particular occasion when Gianciotto was called away from home, he left his young wife in the care of his brother Paolo. The pair grew close during his absence, but it was only while reading the tale of Lancelot and Guinevere together that their own passionate desire sparked within them.
As Francesca explains: ‘Many times that reading drew our eyes together and changed the colour in our faces, but one point alone it was that mastered us; when we read that the longed-for smile was kissed by so great a lover, he who never shall be parted from me, all trembling, kissed my mouth…’ (Dante, Inferno, canto V, 127-38; quoted in A. Audeh, ‘Rodin’s Gates of Hell: Sculptural Illustration of Dante’s Divine Comedy,' in Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, London, 2001, p. 101). It was in this moment that the lovers were discovered by Gianciotto, who had returned from his journey earlier than expected. Enraged by their act of betrayal, he swiftly murdered the pair, condemning them to an eternity of torment.
In Le Baiser, Rodin captures the electric moment in which Paolo and Francesca give into their desires, recording the instant their lips touch for the first time, sealing their fate. Presenting the figures in a distinctly sensual manner, Rodin chooses to leave their lithe bodies completely naked, eschewing the historical costumes and accoutrements that typically accompanied depictions of the couple. The only clue as to their identity lies in the suggestion of a small book beneath Paolo’s hand, discarded in the heat of the moment. In divesting them of the contextualising trappings of the story, Rodin transforms the sculpture into a timeless expression of passionate love, universalizing the theme of two figures lost in the power of their emotions.
Standing at almost a metre high, the present version of Le Baiser was cast in 1970 for the Musée Rodin in Paris, and was swiftly acquired by the renowned collectors Iris and B. Gerald Cantor. Dedicated philanthropists and benefactors, the Cantors assembled an extraordinary group of works by Rodin over the years, building a collection that spanned the artist’s entire oeuvre. According to Iris, her husband had first encountered Rodin’s work as a young man on a visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, an experience that sparked his ‘magnificent obsession’ with the sculptor. At its height, the Cantors owned the largest private collection of Rodin works in the world, which included large- and small-scale sculptures by the artist, as well as an extensive selection of drawings, prints, photographs, and memorabilia. Alongside their generous financial support of exhibitions, scholarly projects, renovation and building work in museums and galleries across the country, the Cantors also eagerly shared their collection with the public. Through the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, they donated artworks to over 70 institutions around the globe and have facilitated various Rodin exhibitions at more than 150 venues in the United States, England, Japan, Venezuela, Italy, and Israel.
Rodin’s depiction of the ill-fated lovers was originally conceived as part of his epic project La porte de l’enfer (The Gates of Hell), a monumental gateway commissioned by the French government for the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1880. Inspired by the events of The Divine Comedy, Rodin envisioned a portal in the style of the great Renaissance masters, such as Ghiberti and Donatello, filled with bas-reliefs of scenes from the darkest portion of Dante’s tale – his explorations of the eight circles of hell, as detailed in The Inferno. Le Baiser held a prominent place in early versions of the composition, occupying the lower left side of the vast door. However, by 1885 Rodin had decided that the palpable bliss of the sensually intertwined couple seemed incongruous with the cataclysmic events surrounding them, and removed the pair, developing the motif as an independent, free-standing sculpture instead.
The tale of Francesca and Paolo’s forbidden love appeared in the fifth canto of The Inferno, and was a popular tale amongst nineteenth-century Romantics. Having entered the second circle of hell, where an unrelenting whirlwind torments the spirits of those who have committed sins of the flesh, Dante encounters these two lovers whose illicit affair was infamous throughout Italy in his own day. Francesca was unhappily wed to Gianciotto Malatesta, the lord of Rimini, in a political marriage intended to solidify an uneasy peace that had been struck between their two families. On one particular occasion when Gianciotto was called away from home, he left his young wife in the care of his brother Paolo. The pair grew close during his absence, but it was only while reading the tale of Lancelot and Guinevere together that their own passionate desire sparked within them.
As Francesca explains: ‘Many times that reading drew our eyes together and changed the colour in our faces, but one point alone it was that mastered us; when we read that the longed-for smile was kissed by so great a lover, he who never shall be parted from me, all trembling, kissed my mouth…’ (Dante, Inferno, canto V, 127-38; quoted in A. Audeh, ‘Rodin’s Gates of Hell: Sculptural Illustration of Dante’s Divine Comedy,' in Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, London, 2001, p. 101). It was in this moment that the lovers were discovered by Gianciotto, who had returned from his journey earlier than expected. Enraged by their act of betrayal, he swiftly murdered the pair, condemning them to an eternity of torment.
In Le Baiser, Rodin captures the electric moment in which Paolo and Francesca give into their desires, recording the instant their lips touch for the first time, sealing their fate. Presenting the figures in a distinctly sensual manner, Rodin chooses to leave their lithe bodies completely naked, eschewing the historical costumes and accoutrements that typically accompanied depictions of the couple. The only clue as to their identity lies in the suggestion of a small book beneath Paolo’s hand, discarded in the heat of the moment. In divesting them of the contextualising trappings of the story, Rodin transforms the sculpture into a timeless expression of passionate love, universalizing the theme of two figures lost in the power of their emotions.
Standing at almost a metre high, the present version of Le Baiser was cast in 1970 for the Musée Rodin in Paris, and was swiftly acquired by the renowned collectors Iris and B. Gerald Cantor. Dedicated philanthropists and benefactors, the Cantors assembled an extraordinary group of works by Rodin over the years, building a collection that spanned the artist’s entire oeuvre. According to Iris, her husband had first encountered Rodin’s work as a young man on a visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, an experience that sparked his ‘magnificent obsession’ with the sculptor. At its height, the Cantors owned the largest private collection of Rodin works in the world, which included large- and small-scale sculptures by the artist, as well as an extensive selection of drawings, prints, photographs, and memorabilia. Alongside their generous financial support of exhibitions, scholarly projects, renovation and building work in museums and galleries across the country, the Cantors also eagerly shared their collection with the public. Through the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, they donated artworks to over 70 institutions around the globe and have facilitated various Rodin exhibitions at more than 150 venues in the United States, England, Japan, Venezuela, Italy, and Israel.