(by Elisabetta Stefanelli)
Works by Auguste Rodin are on
show at the Museo di Santa Caterina in Treviso for the final
event in the programme marking the centenary of the French
master's death.
The works on show - 25 drawings and 50 sculptures - are on
loan from the Musee di Parigi, which is about to undergo a
massive facelift.
'Rodin. Un grande scultore al tempo di Monet', curated by
Marco Goldin, takes visitors on a chronological journey through
the life and work of the man who considered life to be the pure
and infinite expression of the human soul.
The exhibition includes the nucleus of his production, namely
The Gates of Hell, the monumental sculptural group work that
occupied him for several decades and in which his love for
Camille
Claudel, his pupil and muse, is a central theme.
This love has left traces in other works on show, including
the portrait of Rodin executed by Claudel herself, and of the
lover sublimated in the sculpture Thought - featuring a woman's
head emerging from a rough-hewn block - following the end of
their relationship.
This apparently 'unfinished' work "links Rodin to the final
period of Michelangelo, of whom he was a great admirer", says
Goldin.
The influence of the great Renaissance sculptor, artist and
architect can be seen in works executed before and after Rodin's
journey to Italy in 1876.
"Sculpture seems far removed from us as a preference and
feeling for the world," Goldin continued.
However, the emotion conveyed by works such as The Thinker,
Kiss and the Portrait of Balzac is undeniable.
The exhibition also includes two works by other artists that
contain and dialogue with all the other works on show.
These are Fishing netsatPourvilleby Monet and Rodin's
"Thinker" in Dr Linde's Garden in Lübeckby Edvard Munch.
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