. Art and criticism : monographs and studies. chael Angelo weregiven to us in these days of light, where would he not reach ?What torrents of new sensations and new joys he would re-veal! Perhaps he would create a modern sculpture, perhaps hewould force that art to express passions, if it be suited to theexpression of passion. At any rate, Michael Angelo wouldmake it express states of soul. In these words Stendhal, un-consciously prophetic, foretold the coming of Auguste Rodin,who is truly a modern sculptor, a seer, an analyst of the con-temporary soul, a sculptor after Stendhals own heart, a
. Art and criticism : monographs and studies. chael Angelo weregiven to us in these days of light, where would he not reach ?What torrents of new sensations and new joys he would re-veal! Perhaps he would create a modern sculpture, perhaps hewould force that art to express passions, if it be suited to theexpression of passion. At any rate, Michael Angelo wouldmake it express states of soul. In these words Stendhal, un-consciously prophetic, foretold the coming of Auguste Rodin,who is truly a modern sculptor, a seer, an analyst of the con-temporary soul, a sculptor after Stendhals own heart, a sculp-tor of states of soul. In my brief sketch I have dwelt more upon the intellectualforce of Rodins work than upon its plastic beauty, and thereason is that often he is satisfied with a minimum of plasticbeauty, provided his thought is sufficiently expressed by atti-tude, gesture, and the silhouette of the mass. He esteemsmoral beauty and beauty of expression and of character morehighly than simple beauty of form. Hence he has been led to. MADAME M. make works in bronze and marble that are reproductions ofhuman ugliness seen with the eyes of art and of pity. Such isone of his latest statuettes, representing, in a state of complete 268 ART AND CRITICISM. nudity, a poor old woman, whose body is a mass of wrinklesand whose whole person is a wreck, the very synthesis of Ron-sards poem on poor old women. At the same time, in theoriginal project for the statue of Victor Hugo, in the magnifi-cent marble bust of Bellona, in the group of Le Baiser, andin a score morceaux, detached from the Gates of Hell, andexecuted in marble, Rodin has achieved an exquisiteness offormal beauty and delicate modelling that words cannot de-scribe. In the modelling of the bust of Madame M., now inthe Luxembourg, we find the same delight in exquisite work, inthe vibration of fair flesh, in the sensual fascination of a lilialneck. Yet another instance of the sculptors appreciation ofbeauty of form—of th
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookpublisherharper, booksubjectartcriticism
