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Similarly, in the Burghers of Calais
(1885-95) each of the six burghers can be seen as representing the thoughts
and gestures of one man at a moment of heroism. The group commemorates
six citizens of Calais who offered themselves as hostages to Edward III
to lift the siege of their town in 1447. The commission was originally
for only one figure, of Eustache de Saint-Pierre their leader, but Rodin
decided to show all six burghers so that the work would commemorate their
communal heroism, and at the same time show true heroism as something
that requires the overcoming of ordinary fears and regrets.
The principal figure is Eustache de Saint-Pierre,
who is the first one to volunteer, and it is to his example that the others
react. The man to his left holding the key, expresses the humiliation
of his city's surrender, while behind Saint-Pierre a man shows hesitancy
and fear; behind the man with the key another has surrendered to despair.
To the right of Saint-Pierre a man passes his hand over his eyes as if
seeing the spectre of death, while behind him a young man is thinking
of all he is about to leave behind. All the figures are indecisive as
they contemplate their decision, except Saint-Pierre, who because of his
age has the least to lose. The sequence of the action is circular because
it begins with Saint-Pierre's resolute step forward, and passes through
the varying emotions of the other figures and back again to him as they
make their decision to go forward.
The Gates of Hell were commissioned
in 1880 for the Louvre, four years before the Burghers of Calais,
but they were never fully completed, and Rodin used the groups that he
designed for them as separate compositions in marble or bronze. The Gates
of Hell express a more symbolic vision, which reflects the instability
of modern man, his Jack of absolutes and spiritual fixed points, and his
eternal state of desire with no hope of fulfilment. The Poet or Thinker
presides over this huge secular Last Judgment, which owes so much to Baudelaire's
influence. He gradually lost interest in the Gates, and in later years
he began to adopt a more restrained 'Phidian' style, which superseded
his earlier 'gothic' style.
He continued to depict the human body in
vivid studies in clay and outline drawing, but these works were rarely
exhibited, although they are now much more to contemporary taste than
his rather pretentious late marbles. He saw himself as a conservative
upholding the values of a decaying civilization, but the spontaneity of
his late studies and his exploitation of the fragment made a vital contribution
to the art of the twentieth century.
As one of the few authentic masters of
modern sculpture, Rodin saw himself as the successor to his iconic hero
Michelangelo, although the Florentine was a carver while Rodin was mainly
a modeller. He was a passionate admirer of the Gothic cathedrals of France,
from whose heroic reliefs he gained much of his inspiration, and his impact
on his art form was greater than any sculptor since the Renaissance.
Rodin's appetite for work was paralleled
by his desire for women, and surrounded himself with a number of models
and apprentices. As it was, he married in lifelong companion Rose Beuret
in the final months of his life at the age of 77. She died two weeks later.
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