Auguste Rodin, bust

Emile Antoine BOURDELLE (1861, Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne, France) - 1929, Le Vésinet (Yvelines, France))

  • 1910
  • Bronze (Valsuani No. 4)
  • 89.7 cm x 63 cm x 57 cm
  • MBBR119

Bourdelle had stopped working for Rodin over a year earlier when, in 1909, he created this portrait of the master, for whom he had regularly carved marbles for 15 years. Despite the reactions of the model, who abruptly ended the posing sessions, it was indeed a tribute. 
The bust, in the form of a stele, depicts the sculptor as an old bearded colossus. Denaturing and de-membering the body, Bourdelle portrayed Rodin like the unshakeable god, Terminus, a dark, horned patriarch. It is indeed a tribute within a tribute, since Bourdelle drew his inspiration for this effigy from the terribilità of the famous Moses by Michelangelo for the Church of St-Peter-in-Chains in Rome.
The reference to tradition as a mark of respect does not preclude emancipation, as the words inscribed under the beard show: “To the master Rodin, these assembled profiles”. In fact, the geometry of the volumes and the architectural synthesis of the forms clearly express Bourdelle's desire for independence from the Rodinian model. And no doubt it was necessary to say it, and to say it in this way to Rodin.

Colin Lemoine


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