Berlin (2011-2018): The Animals' Conference (Fall 2014 & Winter 2015): BACCHANALE (female centaur & bacchante -detail)

Auguste RODIN (1840 -1917)Bronze - Ed. 841 x 48,8 x 41,8 cmInscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated, stamped with foundry mark The present composition, graciously loaned by the Musée Rodin for this exhibition, consists of a female centaur whose torso is taken directly from that of his Méditation, and a bacchante, reconstituted from the Torse d'Adèle. The fantastic centaurs - half-human, half-horse - were an essential element of Dionysian processions; for the Greeks they symbolized bestial appetites. They inspired Rodin early on in his career, and he frequently used them in female form in both sculptures and drawings, playing on the contrast between the human and the animal, the rational and the irrational. This Bacchanale perfectly synthesizes Rodin's formal study of the female body.
BACCHANALE (female centaur & bacchante -detail), ca. 1880

 

Auguste RODIN (1840 -1917) 

Bronze - Ed. 8 

41 x 48,8 x 41,8 cm 

Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated, stamped with foundry mark  

The present composition, graciously loaned by the Musée Rodin for this exhibition, consists of a female centaur whose torso is taken directly from that of his Méditation, and a bacchante, reconstituted from the Torse d'Adèle.  

The fantastic centaurs - half-human, half-horse - were an essential element of Dionysian processions; for the Greeks they symbolized bestial appetites. They inspired Rodin early on in his career, and he frequently used them in female form in both sculptures and drawings, playing on the contrast between the human and the animal, the rational and the irrational. This Bacchanale perfectly synthesizes Rodin's formal study of the female body.