![](http://www.alamy.com/thumbs/6/84EC23DE-D720-4426-8652-694E494C9FC7/C37NTF.jpg)
The Thinker by François-Auguste-René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917).
The Thinker is a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin, whose first cast, of 1902, is now in the Musée Rodin in Paris; there are some twenty other original castings as well as various other versions, studies, and posthumous castings. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle.[1] It is often used to represent philosophy. Originally named The Poet, the piece was part of a commission by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris to create a monumental portal to act as the door of the museum. Rodin based his theme on The Divine Comedy of Dante and entitled the portal The Gates of Hell. Each of the statues in the piece represented one of the main characters in the epic poem. The Thinker was originally meant to depict Dante in front of the Gates of Hell, pondering his great poem. (In the final sculpture, a miniature of the statue sits atop the gates, pondering the hellish fate of those beneath him.) The sculpture is nude, as Rodin wanted a heroic figure in the tradition of Michelangelo, to represent intellect as well as poetry. wikipedia read
Size: 3487px × 4850px
Photo credit: © lugris / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: art, auguste-rené, bronze, france, lugris2, marf, paris, rodin, sculpture, thinker, tourism, travel