7/24/2019 Rodin's 'Naked Balzac'
1/14
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Rodin's 'Naked Balzac'Author(s): Albert ElsenSource: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 109, No. 776 (Nov., 1967), pp. 604+606-617Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/875432
Accessed: 17-08-2015 17:47 UTC
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EDITORIAL
A few indications
can
be
given
as to
what of crucial
im-
portance
is hidden behind the
scenes.
There are
Rodin's own
books;
about
700ooo
nexhibited
drawings;
the contents of
the
basement
of
the Meudon
museum;
a
great
file of
clippings
from
newspapers
and
magazines
which was
begun during
Rodin's
lifetime;
many
photographs
of Rodin
himself;
and
photographs
which
helped
him
with his work
on,
for
example,
the statue of
Balzac.
Grappe
in
his
catalogue
refers
to
atelier
notes,
known
to be in the
attic of the
Musde
Rodin.
(And conversely
there
is the material
that should be
there,
and is
not.
Many
of the
photographs
n
the museum's
album
are old and of
poor quality,
and not all the workshave
been
photographed.
There is no
photographic
record of
the draw-
ings,
so that
a
scholar could
examine them even if
the
originals
were denied
to
him.)
It would not be fair to
Mme
Goldscheider o claim that
literally
none of this
material
has
been
seen
by any foreign
scholar since
she took over
the
Directorship
of the Musee
Rodin some
eighteen years ago.
It is fair to claim that most
Rodin
scholarship
still
proceeds
in
the absence of that museum's
leadership
or
assistance.
ALBERT
ELSEN
R o d i n s
N a k e d
B a l z a c
'There was
nothing
in him
of the man
of this
century.
One
might think,
on
seeing him,
that
one
had
passed
into
another
age
and
was
in
the
society
of
those
few who
by
their nature
were
immortal,
of
whom Louis
XV
was the
centre . .
.
It
was the
face of
an
element:
big
head,
hair dishevelled over his
collar and
cheeks,
like a wave
which the
scissors never
clipped...
He
was
big,
thick,
square
at
the
base and
shoulders
... There
was so much
soul
that he
carried himself
lightly, gaily.
So that his
body
was like a
flexible
covering
and
not a burden. This
weight
seemed
to add and
not
detract from his
strength.
His
short arms
gestured
with ease and he
chatted the
way
an
orator
speaks...
his
legs
on
which he
occasionally
rocked a
little,
easily
carried his
body;
his
large
fat
hands
responded
expressively
to
his
thought.
Such was the man
in
his
robust
frame..,
his
black
eyes
were as
piercing
as darts... his
rosy
cheeks
were
full..,
the nose was well modelled
although
a little
long;
the
ample lips
were
gracefully
shaped
and
turned
up
at
the corners . . .
the head
often
rested to
one side
on the
neck and then with
an heroic
pride
straightened
itself as he
became
animated
in
the
discussion.
That
expressive
face,
from which one could
not
detach one's
gaze,
was
entirely charming
and
fascinating.
But its
predom-
inant
characteristic,
even more than
its
intelligence,
was the
goodness
it com-
municated
. .
.
No
passion
of hatred or
envy
could have
been
expressed
on that
face;
it
was
impossible
for
it
to be
anything
but kind. ..
it was a
loving
kind-
ness,
aware of itself and
of others
. . .'
(Lamartine's
escription
f
Balzac)
The
Problems
Rodin's
accomplishment
n
his
sculpture
of
the
naked
Balzac
may
be
best
understood
in
terms of
the
problems,
apparent
and
real,
with
which he had to
cope.1
He was
first
of all a
sculptor
dedicated
to
working
from
life, yet
his
subject
had
died over
forty
years
earlier when
Rodin
was
only
io.
In
his
vanity
Balzac
had
a
cast
made of
his
right
hand,
but there
was no
death
mask to
give
exact facial
dimensions
such as
Rodin
often took
from his
subjects
with
a
pair
of
callipers.
The
most accurate record of
Balzac's
physical
proportions
were in
caricaturesand his
old tailor's
records.
There was no
life-size
sculpture
to
give
the artist
the true
scale
of
the entire
figure
or
to
recall
its
profiles
rom
many points
of
view,
which
for
Rodin
were crucial to the
making
of
any
work
of
art,
whether of
a
clothed
or naked
figure
(whether
Rodin
knew
of Puttinati's
small marble
sculpture
of
a
robed
Balzac,
done
in
I837,
we do not
know).
In his
informative
essay
on
this Rodin
sculpture,
Professor
de
Caso,
like the late
Judith
Cladel,
reminded us of the
difficulties Rodin
encountered with his
patrons,
La
Soci6te
des Gens
de
Lettres.
From the
outset
this
group
was
not
unanimous
in
its
support
of
Rodin to
replace
the
deceased
sculptor
Chapu,
and,
despite
his
silence on the
subject,
Rodin
probably
knew
there
were other
sculptorswaiting
in
the
wings.2
The model for the final
sculpture
which
Rodin
showed
the
Societe
in
1892,
and
which
may
have been
the
one whose cast is discussedin this
essay, brought
no
satis-
faction,
and
subsequent
demands
from his
client for
speed-
ing
the work's
completion
once
reached
the
absurdity
of their
1
This
essay
originated
from
a
talk
given
on
8th
May, 1966,
at the
unveiling
of
Rodin's
sculpture
of
the
naked Balzac at the Rhode Island
School of
Design
Museum.
A
Guggenheim
Fellowship
for
research into the
origins
and
develop-
ment
of modem
sculpture
made
it
possible
to
rethink,
rework and
expand
the
contents of that
lecture into its
present
form.
My gratitude
must also extend
to
Mrs Athena
Spear
for
her
excellent advice on
technical
matters,
and to
Pro-
fessor Leo
Steinberg
for our
discussions
of this
sculpture
and
his
calling
atten-
tion to certain
references.
I
would also like to thank
Professor Harold Lewis of
the
Department
of
Physiology,
London
University,
for
his
interesting
obser-
vations
made
from
viewing
photographs
of the
sculpture.
On
many points
of
interpretation
I
differ from Professor
Jacques
de
Caso's
essay
on
this
sculpture
published
in the
May
1966
Bulletin
of
theRhode sland School
of
DesignMuseum,
but I wish
to
acknowledge
that his work was an
important
stimulation
and
source of information for
my
own
essay.
As I have stated before in this
Magazine,
the difficulties and often
impossi-
bility
of
conducting
research
in
the archives of
the Mus6e
Rodin
make
present
Rodin
research
speculative
in
part.
Some
day,
a
new
generation
of
scholars
will
be able to
use
this museum's vital resources to correct our
errors,
but
alas,
that
generation may
be as
yet
unborn.
If instead
of
the erratic
Cerberus the
doyenne
of
the
Mus6e Rodin had been
guarding
Hell,
Dante's Divine
Comedy
would never have been written.
2
Chapu's maquette appears
to have been lost
and I have
not
found
a
photo-
graph
of
it.
Two
drawings
for
his
project
are
reproduced
by
CHARLES
DU
BOSQUET
n
the
Revue
de
l'Art,
n
[1911
,
p.x
12.
In
1891
the Soci6t6
des Gens de
Lettres asked the
sculptors
Falguiere,
Merci6,
and Dubois for
their
advice.
They
recommended
giving Chapu's maquette
to
a
praticien
or
enlargement.
According
to an
unsigned
article
in
Le
Temps [i8th
July,
1891],
Chapu's
monument showed Balzac dressed
in
a monk's
robe,
seated
in an
armchair
which
in
turn was mounted on
a
pedestal.
On one
side stood
a
woman
who
symbolized
'La
gloire'
and
on
the other 'un
petit
amor'nscribed
with the name
of
Balzac.
6o6
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3/14
RODIN'S 'NAKED
BALZAC'
voting
to
require
the
sculpture's completion
within
twenty-
four hours.3For Rodin to have satisfied all of
the members'
respective images
of Balzac
would
have been
equal
to
Bal-
zac's
fictive
painter,
Frenhofer,
in
the
Chef
d'oeuvre
nconnu
successfullycreating
a
perfect synthesis
of line
and
colour.
In
his
professional
life and
throughout
his
activity,
and
even
periods
of
inactivity,
on the
Balzac
monument,
Rod-
in's affinities with the
man
he
sought
to
honour
were re-
markable.Like
Balzac,
he
agreed
to a
great undertaking
that
was to
be
realized
in a
period
that
was far
too short as
measured
by
his
own
previous delays
with
similar
com-
missions.
Both artist
and
writer were
compulsive
editors
of
their own
work,
reluctant
to
give
it
up
and
even
then re-
working
in
their minds
or
creating
new versions of
what
they
had
done.
As
they grew
older
their
conceptions
matured with
them.
No more than Balzac could Rodin refrainfrom start-
ing
or
continuing
on other
projects
such
as the
memorial to
Baudelaire,
the monument to Victor
Hugo,
the Tower
of
Labour,
he
completion
and
installation
of
the
Burghers
f
Calais
and
the
Claude
Lorrain
sculpture
at
Nancy.
The
sculptor's
acceptance
of
major
commissions,
unlike that of
Balzac, did not stem from such overwhelming financial
need,
but like his
predecessor,
Rodin was
goaded
by
the
challenge
to
do
many
great things
at the same time
for
the
public.
Balzac
wrote
to live
well;
Rodin
lived to
work
well.
Of
all the male
subjects
Rodin
was to
interpret
in
his
career,
Balzac
provided
the
greatest problem
because he
possessed
the least
likely
body
to be
celebrated
in
serious
sculpture. During
his
lifetime it had been
ripe
for caricature
and Balzac's detractorshad
reaped
the harvest. Balzac was
neither a
man of
physical
action
nor
attraction
and
he
made
much of the fact that for weeks on end he would sit for six-
teen to
eighteen
hours
a
day
at his
writing
table.
According
to various
contemporary descriptions,
when
standing
he
revealed
gnome-like legs,
an
enormous
paunch
and
a
huge
head.
His
profile spurred
comparison
with the Ace of
Spades.
Only
when his audience
could observe his
eyes
or when he
spoke
was he
impressive.
At first
sight
and before
they
talked,
Gavarni
mistook
him
for
a
bookseller's
apprentice.
While
the
great
man
thought
of himself as a
gentleman
of
fashion,
he
was
in
fact
given
to
outlandish dress
in
public,
but
worked
at home in a Dominican monk's
habit.
He was
prematurely
pot-bellied
and
gap-toothed,
so that
even
if Rodin had
fin-
ally
opted
for
a
younger
Balzac,
most of these
physical
characteristics would
have
still confronted
him.
More
interesting
than
the choice of the
subject's
age,
was
why
Rodin consented
to do
a
full
figure
of
a
writer.
For
him
the most
important
problem
in a
public
monument was the
head, which a few years before he felt another artist had
solved for a memorial
to
Balzac.
In an
interview
with
an
unnamed
reporter
that
was
published
in Le
Temps,
12th
September
I888,
both Rodin and Dalou
spoke
of
how,
whoever would
make
a statue to
Balzac,
would
have more
or
less to
copy
and
respect
the
bust
by
David
D'Angers
(Fig.2).
According
to
Rodin,
'That
leaves
the artist to
make
a
choice
of
symbolic figures...
and
I
have
not
thought
about
them.'
(But
Rodin
had
given
some
thought
to
the
body
that should
support
the bust and told the
reporter
it should
have 'broad
shoulders'.)
His
years
of trial and
change
of his
monument
to
Victor
Hugo
were to
culminate
in
the
cutting
away
of
everything
but the author's
bust
which
Rodin
finally
acknowledged
as the best
of his labour.
In
I892,
in
a
statement
concerning
the memorial to Baudelaire that
prob-
ably paralleled
in
time the
making
of the
naked
Balzac,
Rodin
gave
a
persuasive argument
against
including
the
body
of
a
writer
in a commemorative
sculpture:
'I cannot
see
a
statue of Baudelaire.
What is
a
statue after
all? A
body,
arms,
legs,
covered
with banal
clothing.
What do these have
to
do with
Baudelaire,
who
lived
only
by
his
brain?
With
him the
head
is
everything.'4
Not the least of Rodin's problemsand inspirationwas the
fact
that his
sculpture
of Balzac was
originally
intended to
be
placed
near the
Theatre
Frangais
(today
the
Comedie
Frangaise)
n
the Place du Palais
Royal,
where it would have
to
contend with
a
large open space,
traffic,
and
architecture,
particularly
the Louvre
as its
backdrop.
In
sum,
Rodin dedicated
a
large part
of six
years
to re-
creating
for
a
fickle,
disunited,
insatiable
client an heroic
public
monument to
a
deceased
national hero who
in
ap-
pearance
had
been
an
ugly
fat
man,
and who wrote books.
The
problem
of
bringing
Balzac back
to
life was one to
which Rodin did
in
fact
bring
considerable
previous
ex-
perience.
His
John
the
Baptist,
he
Burghersf
Calais,
and
port-
raits
of
Bastien-Lepage
and Claude Lorrain had
been
based
on live models whose
appearance
and
expression
he felt
were
sufficiently
close
to those of
his
subjects.
Rodin's
re-
creation of
a
great subject
was similar to
the
method em-
ployed by
Balzac
when
he
prepared
to
portray
Napoleon,
for
example.
The
sculptor
even reconnoitred the
geograph-
ical terrain
of
Balzac's life
much as
the writer had revisited
old
Napoleonic
battlefields. Balzac
drew
inspiration
for
his
characters
from
close
friends,
chance
acquaintances
or
people
seen
momentarily
on the
streets.
Rodin trusted to
chance encounters
in
Balzac's home
country
of Touraine
and Paris to
give
him ideas and models. The writer's
ap-
pearance
was familiar
through drawings,
caricatures,
prints,
paintings,
some
sculptures,
and
photographs.
The
visual
and
literary documentation came gradually to be fused in the
sculptor's imagination
and it
midwifed
the
emergence
of
many
of the
preliminary
studies.
Why
did
Rodin choose
an
older
rather
than
a
younger
Balzac for
the naked
figure
he showed the Socidtd
in
1892
?
(Anatomically
the model
was
probably
in his
early
50's.)
Admittedly
his
various
portrait
reconnaissances,
such as
a
head
in
the Tate
Gallery,
show
various
ages.5
As
a
young
man
Balzac,
like
Rodin,
though
talented
and
energetic
and
3
While the date
of
1892
is
very possible
for
the
clay
and
plaster
versions of
the
naked Balzac as
Professor
de
Caso
concludes,
we still cannot be
absolutely
sure.
Professor
de
Caso cites
CHARLES
CHINCHOLLE's
rticle
to
support
this
date:
'During
the
year
1892
.
. . the
artist
conceived
a
strange
Balzac
in
the
attitude of a
wrestler,
seeming
to
defy
the
world. He
had
put
over
very widely
spread legs
an
enormous
belly.
More
concerned
with an
exact resemblance
than
with the
general
conception
of
Balzac,
he made him
shocking, misshapen,
his
head sunk
into
his
shoulders
. . .'
(p.9).
Chincholle's
description
could
fit
equally
well
the
plaster
naked Balzac at Meudon which
Professor
de
Caso
reproduces
as
plate
9
and
which
for undisclosed reasons
he
dates as
i897-8.
(I agree
with
Athena
Spear
that this
last work more
probably
dates from
1893
or
I894.)
An
unsigned
article in Le
Temps [19th August,
I896]
makes it
clear
that
by
that date Rodin
had settled on the
final robed
figure.
Mrs
Spear
has
published
a
chronology
for
the
Balzac studies
in
her
excellent
catalogue
of
Rodin
sculptures
in the
Cleveland
Museum of Art.
4
This
statement is
from an article of
1892
which is
in
one of
the
few Mus6e
Rodin
files of
clippings
I
was allowed
to
see five
years
ago.
This was
also
the
last time
I was
permitted
to
work
with
any
archival material in
that
museum.
5
This head is
reproduced
in RONALD ALLEY'S
The
Tate,
Foreign Paintings,
Drawings
and
Sculpture
1959],
p.217
and
pl.476.
Mr
Alley
dates
the head of the
607
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4/14
RODIN'S
'NAKED
BALZAC'
dreaming
of
greater
things,
was
obliged
to
do a
considerable
amount
of hack
work,
even
letting
others
sign
their names
to his efforts or
writing
under the
nom de
plume
of
Horace
de
Saint-Aubin.
Before
he was
30,
Balzac had not written
enough
nor
sufficiently
well
to
warrant
his later commem-
oration
by
the
greatest
living sculptor
or his
patron.
Rodin
was
surely
aware of the
long
apprenticeship
they
both en-
dured,
and
the
tenacity
married
to
energy
that
begot
their
respective
characters.
In
their
productive
early years,
as
well
as
later,
both were
subjected
to bitter
and often scurrilous
attacks.
It was
not until his
late
30's
that Balzac conceived
of
the
grand
plan
for
the Comidie
Humaine.
This
conception,
like
Rodin's Gates
of
Hell,
was
strongly inspired
by
Dante's
Divine
Comedy.
Thus
at
about
the same
age
in
life,
roughly
40,
both
men
working
in Paris and
drawing
from
a
common
inspiration
came
to undertake
an
epic
art that
would
re-
create
their
own societies.
The
bonds
between Rodin
and
Balzac
were
many
and
certainly deeply
felt
by
the
former.
Neither man could
give
himself
completely
to one
woman
and
although
they
oc-
casionally
needed
women
for
support,
obsession
with artistic
creation was their most enduring and faithful love. Both men
experienced
amorous
victories,
defeats,
and
misalliances,
but
drew from these
experiences
to the benefit of
their
art in
terms of
subjects
and
feelings.
If
there
is
a
single
unifying
pre-
occupation
in
their
lives and works it
is with
passion.
In
Bal-
zac's novels
it
is
the monomania
of
passion
for
wealth,
status,
or sex
which drives
so
many
of
his
principal
characters
and
their families to
destruction.
Passion
is the cause
and
pun-
ishment
of those
who
are in the Gates
of
Hell.
Both writer
and
sculptor
were
compassionate
judges
of
their
times,
never
dispassionate reporters.
Neither
man
could
accept
orthodox
religion
in
his
per-
sonal beliefs.
Each
responded
aesthetically
to the
beauty
of
the
cathedrals
and
the
sights
and sounds
of
the
liturgy.
The
Church
as
a
socially
unifying
force
through
education
and
charity
was
valued
by
the two
men
who
regretted
the
ab-
sence
of
social
and moral cohesion
in their societies.
While
after
an
agnostic
phase
Balzac
developed
mystical
and
philo-
sophical
views about
the
unity
of
all
life,
analogous
to but
more
sophisticated
than
those of
Rodin,
both
found
their
spiritual
salvation
in
brutally
unsparing
creative
work.
The
Comidie
Humaine
and
Rodin's
art were born
of intense
observation
of
life.
Both
men
believed,
for
instance,
in
physiognomic
psychology
or
that
a man's character
revealed
itself
in
his
face.
According
to
his
biographers,
Balzac
usually
chose
not to
draw
his characters
entirely
from the
same
person
he
knew
nor
from
himself,
but
they
were
in fact
syn-
thesized and developed from individuals to types, or the
reverse.
This was Rodin's
practice
and
it was
well known
that
he would
make
over
his
portrait
subjects
into
his
own
image.
Some
of the
sculptor's
critics,
like
their
earlier
literary
coun-
terparts,
were
to
complain
in
1898
that
the
final
character
he evolved
for
Balzac
was an abstraction.
Both
artists
shared
the view
that their
problems
were
to
create
portraits
that
were
faithful
to
the
powerful
psychological
and
emotional
forces
that
shaped
the
inner
man and
which
also showed
how
external
appearance
responded
to
the
shaping
pressures
of
nature.
It is hard to
believe that
having
done
so much
personal
research
nto Balzac's
history
Rodin was unaware of
or un-
impressed
with this man's
personal
magnetism
and de-
bauchery
that
were
as
Herculean
as
his
writing. Biograph-
ers wrote
how he feasted while
facing bankruptcy
and how
his
abundant
belly
reverberated
o
joviality,
or
how his
eyes
melted
the resistance of beautiful
women
when
they
first
saw him.
Unlike
Baudelaire,
in
Rodin's
imagination
it
seems
probable
that Balzac lived not
only
by
his brain but
also
through
his
body.
Balzac had referred
to
himself
as
being
many
men,
and
one
can
conjecture
which Balzac
might
Rodin have
imaged
in his
mind
in
i891;
the womanizer
who knew
the other
sex better
than
they
themselves;
the financier
gifted
with
prophecy
but
damned
by
naiveti;
or
the aesthetewho award-
ed himself
bejewelled
canes?
As a
writer,
the
choices for
Rodin
could have been between the Rabelaisian Balzac
of
the Contes
Drolatiques,
r
the
visionary
of
Siraphita,
or
the
astute
sociologist
of the
Physiologies,
o name
but
a
few.
Rodin's
sculpture suggests
that
in
many
respects
he decided
not
to
choose,
but to
fuse.
The
Sculpture
Much
of the brilliance
of
the
sculpture
of the
naked Balzac
derives
from its strident
pose. Psychologically
and aestheti-
cally
it
wins
a
commanding presence
for
the
figure.
The
assertivestance
as much as
bodily
proportionsreadily
lends
itself
to
interpreting
the
figure
as
an
athlete,
a
wrestler,
a
man
whose
aged
body
preserves
the
memory
of
physical
strength.Judith
Cladel
astutely
described
this
work
as
'the
movement
of a
fighter
who
marches
to
combat'.6 Rodin's
decision
to
position
his
figure
thus
was
a
genuinely inspired
one,
not
suggested
by
the visual
iconography
or written
descriptions
of the man.
Paintings,
drawings, prints,
and
sculptures
do not show this
pose,
nor do
such
biographers
as
Lamartine and Werdet specificallydescribethis wide open
stance
as
being
natural or
instinctive to
him.
Danton's
sculp-
tural caricature
(which
Balzac
liked for
showing
his
asser-
tive
inclination),
while true
to
Balzac's
proportions
accord-
ing
to
Werdet,
showsthe
right
foot
only
slighty
advanced and
the
feet not
too
far
apart
(Fig.3).7
Boulanger's painting,
which
Balzac admired for
showing
his
tenacity
and
self-
confidence
in the
future,
does reveal the writer with arms
folded across
his chest
(Fig.4). (Balzac
liked
the
monastic
associations
of
his
white robe
and
he
hoped
it
would con-
vince
his
Polish mistress of his
fidelity during
their
separa-
tion.8)
Rodin's
sense
of the
appropriateness
of
the
folded
naked
Balzac
full
figure
in Rhode
Island,
a
cast
of which
is
in the
Tate,
as
being
I892,
P.247.
Mr
Alley's
scholarship
and
observations
are
exceedingly
fine.
6
JUDITH
CLADEL:
Rodin,
sa vie
glorieuse,
a vie
inconnue,
dition
Definitive,
Paris
[1950],
p.I89.
7 There is a strong possibility that Danton's pose for Balzac may have given
Rodin the
germ
of his
sculptural
idea for
broadening
the
figure's
base.
EDMOND
WERDET: Portrait
ntimede
Balzac,
sa
vie,
son
humeur
t son
caracthre,
aris
[I 859],
P-359.
8
ANDR.
MAUROIS:Prometheus:
The
Life of
Balzac,
London
[1965],
P-327.
This
is
a
superb
biography
which
encouraged
me
to
expand upon
the Rodin and
Balzac
relationship beyond
my
lecture.
Certain
scholars
and
critics
have advanced
the
view that Rodin
took his
idea
for
the
final
robed
figure
of Balzac from either
a
Gothic Pleurant
sculpture,
a
Japanese
ceramic
figurine
in his
collection,
Medardo Rosso's
Bookmaker,
r a
suggestion
from Bourdelle.
Balzac's
well-known
love and constant use
of his
robe,
its recurrence
in
his
visual
iconography
known to
Rodin,
and the
sculp-
tor's
use
of it as
early
as
I891,
make
these
suggested
attributions
irrelevant
in
my
opinion.
For
example,
in Le
Temps
of
I
Ith
January,
1892,
in an
unsigned
article,
we can
read,
'Balzac
is
standing,
arms
crossed,
head
high,
and
he is
draped
in his
legendary
monk's robe'.
Rodin could have been
continuing
Chapu's
choice
of
costume.
608
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5/14
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2.
Bust
of
Balzac,
by
David
d'Angers.
Signed
and dated
1844.
Marble.
(Musee
des
Beaux-Arts,
Angers).
Photo
Giraudon.
3.
Caricature
of
Balzac,
by
Danton.
1835.
Terra-cotta.
(Mus&e
Carnavalet,
Paris.)
Photo
Giraudon.
4.
Engraving
by
Paul
Chenay
after
painting
of Balzac
by
Louis
Boulanger.
Photo
Roger
Viollet.
5.
Nude
study
of
Balzac,
by Auguste
Rodin.
Plaster;
height,
43'7
cm.
(Musde
Rodin,
Paris).
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6/14
6.
The
Naked
Balzac,
by
Auguste
Rodin.
Bronze;
height,
127
cm.
(Rhode
Island
School of
Design,
Providence.)
7.
Another view
of the bronze
reproduced
in
Fig.6.
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7/14
RODIN'S
'NAKED BALZAC'
arms
may
also have come from
or been
reinforced
by
reading
Autre
Jtude de
Femme,
n
which,
while
describing Napoleon,
Balzac
wrote,
'A man is
depicted
with his
arms
folded,
but
who did
everything
. . .
A
man who
could do
everything
because
he
willed
everything.'9
This
ironic
image
of
the
passive
gesture
for men who in
their
own
ways
reshaped
the
world
may
not have been
lost
upon
Rodin.
It is
in
the
sculptor's
own
art,
in
the small
figure
of the
naked
Balzac,
right
arm
extended,
the
left bent behind his
back
and
legs
apart
in an
oratorical
pose
that Lamartine
could have
suggested,
that there is
possibly
the
immediate
precedent
for the
open
stance
(Fig.5)*.10
Rodin
surely
heard
and
read
of
Balzac's
oratorical skill
either
in
the salon
or on
the
stage
where
he
read
his unfinished
plays
to
prospective
backers.
(A
not
inappropriate
pose
for the site
near
the
ThdeatreFran?ais.)
It was in
such moments
of
forensic dis-
play
that
he
could
dispel
the
audience's consciousness
of his
physical
shortcomings.
The
pose
of the
naked
Balzac satisfies
different
demands.
It
imparts suggestions
of
strong
character and
a
self-assured
attitude towards the
world.
Secondly,
it
was
the
brilliant
artistic solution to the problem of achieving an imposing
sculpture
of
a
short
obese
subject.
In
the
present-day
ab-
sence
of rhetorical
sculpture
we
have
forgotten
how
import-
ant were
figure
composition
and
symbolism
before
and
dur-
ing
Rodin's
lifetime.
(We
have
even
forgotten
of what
single
figure composition
consists
and that since
antiquity
the
naked
body
was used
metaphorically.)
Rodin's
sculpture
reminds
us
that
good
figure
composition
included minimiz-
ing
and
harmonizing
physical disparities.
Better than
any
alchemist,
Rodin
was
able
to
transform the lead of
Balzac's
physical
liabilities into
artistic
gold.
There
is
every
reason to believe that
for
this
sculpture
Rodin
used the
body
of
one
model
and
the
head of
another.
This was a frequent practice in his art as testified to in the
Gates
of
Hell and
Burghers
f
Calais.
One
of
his
many
con-
siderable
achievements
in this
sculpture
is to
persuade
us
that the
body
can
only belong
to the head on its
shoulders,
and
the reverse.
There were
times when the
body
stood
in
his
studio without a
head. It is
for
this
and
other
reasons
within
the
sculpture
tself
that
I
suggest
an
influence
of
the
legs
of
the
Walking
Man on the
naked
Balzac
(Fig.8).
In
the
1890's,
the
headless,
armless torso
and
striding legs though
probably
not
joined
until
1900,
remained
in
Rodin's studio and there-
fore
were
susceptible
to
study
and
comparison.
As
with the
Walking
Man,
it is
probable
that
Rodin
intended
the
viewer
to read
his
sculpture sequentially
from the base
upward,
the
back
leg
to
the
front
leg.
Such a
reading
can
be
made
with
profit
(Fig.9).
It
seemed to
have been Balzac's habit to stand
with his
toes
pointed
outwards.
In
both
of
Rodin's aforementioned
sculptures
the
figures
are
somewhat
pigeon-toed,
and
the
feet
firmly
identified
with the
base and its
shape
or
peri-
meter.
The
base of the
Balzac sculpture
has
in
fact been
trimmed
more
closely
to
coincide
with
the
angle
and dia-
meter
of the feet
(the
left
foot
overlaps
the
base
as
it
does
in
the
final
version
of
1898).
Examination of
the
right
foot and
leg
of
the
Balzac shows a
discontinuity
of
their axes and
a
drastic
curvature
of the shin-bone
of
the
right leg (Figs.9, 6).
A
surgeon
would correct such
a
condition
by
an
operation,
but
Rodin
has in fact induced this
physical
deformity by
changing
the
position
of the foot
or
leg,
but
not
both.
The
upper
part
of
the
figure's right
leg
seems
to be turned out-
wards as if the foot were
similarly angled.
As
with
the
Walk-
ing
Man,
it is
possible
that
Rodin
wanted
some
closure
to the
open
stance
and found that the
present angle
of the
foot
produced
a
more
dramatic
muscular
tension
and
overall
visual effectiveness.11
By spreading
the feet wide
apart,
Rodin
gained
many
advantages.
A
physiologist
studying
photographs
of the
sculpture suggested
that the stance would
accommodate
a
figure
who had a
shortened
eg
and wishedto
appear
normal.
There is
another reason
to
believe
that
Rodin's model
was
not
so
handicapped
and we must
also
udge
his distortions
within
the
context
of
the whole
sculpture.
Rodin's concerns for
perfection
were aesthetic and
expressive,
not
cosmetic.
The
forked
stance
produced
a
broad base
for
the
figure
which
preserved
the
overall
squarish
appearance
Lamartine des-
cribed,
and
prevented
the stomach
from
visually
overbal-
ancing the whole. This posture also allowed the artist to
build
dramatically
to
the
stomach
area
and
discreetly
to
lengthen
the
subject's
short
legs.
As
in
the
Walking
Man,
the
rear or left
leg
is
a
few
inches
longer
than
the
right
or front
leg.
By spreading
the
legs
Rodin
did himself
and his
subject
a
service
as he was able to hollow the
flanks where there
was
likely
to have been
fat in
his
middle-aged
model.
The
swell
of
the left
thigh
muscle,
most noticeable
from
a
left
rear
view,
is
anatomically
questionable
unless induced
by
a
pressure
exerted on the
inner
part
of
the
leg
(Fig.
i).
But this
area
must be
read
visually
as
part
of
the
passage
from
the
left
ankle
up
through
the stomach and left elbow
in
order to
understand the artistic incentive
of
visual
continuity
for this
exaggeration.
The
mound
between
the
legs
served
as a
quarry
from
which Rodin extracted
clay
to build the
figure.
Its
presence
in the
Rhode
Island,
Chicago
and smaller version
is
some-
thing
of
a
puzzle.
While it
may
have concealed
part
of
the
armature,
which
is
debatable,
the stance
and Rodin's
skill
at
building
armatures
suggest
that the
figure
was
actually
self-sufficient.12
Further,
the mound
has been
deliberately
shaped.
It
can
be
viewed
aesthetically against
the
profiles
of
the
legs
from several
angles
for
example.
It is
quite probable
that
Rodin
left it
there because
he intended
the final
figure
to
be robed and in
studying
it did not
want
daylight
between
the
legs.
Judith
Cladel
wrote of
how
Rodin
would
repeatedly
study
the
sculpture's
intended
site,
measuring
the
cube
of
space
his
figure
would
occupy.13
This
type
of
study
would have
9
MAUROIS, oP. cit.,
p.402.
10
Professor de
Caso
reads
this
pose
as
that of a
'wrestler or
athlete', op. cit.,
P.9.
11
While an anatomistwould
quickly
notice
this
physical imperfection,
Pro-
fessor
Lewis indicated to me
that
Rodin had not created
an
anatomical m-
possibility,
or
the
humanankle
and calf muscles
are
capable
of
wide
variations
in
structureand
position.
The
back
of
Balzac's
right leg
was
not
completely
finished
by
the artist. Its
angular editing
and vector-like hrust
suggest
that
Rodin wanted to contest he natural
curvature
f the model's
eg
and
perhaps
impart
more
strength
and
vigour
into the stance. The variation
n overall
surface
handling
n thisworkseemedto me much
greater
than the Meudon
plaster
version
n
which Professor e
Caso
sees evidence of a
'revolutionary'
change
of
style.
12
Professore Caso
suggests
he mound's
possible
useto
disguise
an
armature.
However,
here s no such
counterpart
n
the
Meudon
version,
or
in
the small-
scale version
of
the
Walking
Man,
or
in
such
daring
feats of
armature
building
as Rodin's
Spirit f
Eternel
epose.
18
LADEL,
p.
cit.,
pp.189-90.
611
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8/14
RODIN'S
'NAKED
BALZAC'
taken into account a more solid
silhouette than
that
which
the mound's absence
would have
produced.
The rear view of the
sculpture
is
surprising
after one
has
seen
the
figure
from the
front
(Fig.i12).
Anatomically
the
back shows less fat
than the front
and
the
deep trough
of the
spinal
area
tells us that Rodin's model
had
a
history
of
considerable
physical
exertion and
lifted
heavy
weights.
(But
he
was
not
a
weight-lifting athlete,
for
the
chest
by
comparison
has much more subcutaneous
issue
which blurs
the
pectoral area.)
The
pose
of the
folded arms
suggests
strength,
but as Professor
Lewis
points
out,
Rodin
shows
a
kind of
'cuddling
up
of fat'
(Fig.Ii).
Rodin's
empirical study
of
many
living subjects
had
shown
him
that
individuals
can
have this
type
of
asymmetry.
Anatomists as well
as
artists
have
admired his
ability
shown in this
sculpture
of dis-
criminating
in
his
modelling
between muscle and
fat.
Bal-
zac's back
gives
at once
the
impression
of
a
firm
but
flexible
skeletal
frame
to which are
attached
strong
muscles with a
thin
layer
of fat
beneath the flesh. The
squared
back's divi-
sion
by
the
graceful
curve
of
the lumbar
region
does much to
ensure
the
sculpture's
beauty
and
power
from this
angle.
The young sculptorswho reacted against Rodin around
1900
felt that he did not have a
sufficient
sense
of the
latent
'architecture' of the
body.
His work
was
thought
of
as too
'soft'
and
susceptible
to dissolution
in
the
open
air.
Today
one
finds it
hard
to
understand
how
his
sculpture
such
as
the
naked Balzac could be
found
guilty
on
either
count.
The
legs,
for
example,
are
like
two
flying
buttresses or canted
pillars
that thrust or
plunge
into the
pelvic
area rather than
passively receiving
the inert
weight
of the
stomach
(Fig.6).
Rodin's
great insight
into
the
body's
structure led
him
to
produce
figures
that are
closer to Eiffel's
engineered
struc-
tures of the
time
than
any
architecture
possessing
the
post
and lintel
system.
Continuing
the
upward sequence
of
reading
the
Balzac,
the torso is like the second act of a
drama. The
stomach's
pugnacious
swell is not into a
perfect sphere
such as
one
finds on
baroque
sculptures
of
Silenus or Tacca's
Bacchus
n
the
Pitti Palace
gardens.
The
latter seems never to have ex-
perienced hunger
and
appears permanently
inflated. The
pliant
surfacesof Rodin's
sculpture
evoke recollections
of
its
owner's
feasting
and
fasting,
and
we
sense
the
presence
of
inner
organs
as
well as the
impressions
made
by clothing.
On
the one
hand
Rodin
gives
us
evidence
that his
model was at
least
a candidate for
a
hernia,
and
on
the
other he handles
fat as
if it
were
muscle.
The
stomach
thrusts forward with
the
impact
of
a
clenched fist.
(Werdet
once
described
Balzac
as
'entering
a
salon
like the
point
of
alance'.14)
Nothing,
least
of all the navel, is played down. Rodin reminds us that the
body
is
the
perfect exemplar
for
sculpture
in
that
sculpture
consists
of the hole and the
lump.
For Rodin there
is
no
such
thing
as an
ugly
model;
only
sculpture
without character
and
beauty
came
from the
sculptor.
Since
the time of
the
Old
Kingdom
Egyptian sculpture
of the
Sheik-el-Beled,
there
is no more
glorious
and
expressive
stomach
in
sculpture
than
that
given
to Balzac.
What
Edmund
Rostand did for
Cyr-
ano's
nose,
Rodin
did
for Balzac's abdomen.
It calls
to
mind
an ironic inversion
of
the writer's
story
of
the
Peau
de
Chagrin,
which
was a
magic
talisman that shrank
with
the
fulfilling
of its owner's
wishes and
thereby
shortened
his
life.
As Balzac's skin
enlarged,
his
own life
decreased.
Like
Raphael
de
Valentin,
Balzac too was a
victim of desire and
action.
He
well
knew that
overworkand
dissipation
made ex-
cessive withdrawalsfrom his
life's
account.
Rodin
often
spoke
of his
use of
'geometry'
as
a
guide
to
the
achieving
of
good
form. What he
meant
is
best
illustrated
by
his
posturing
of
Balzac.
He
would
visualize
a
cube within
which
his
imagined
or
emerging
figure
would be
contained.
At
certain
points
the
figure
would
touch
but not
trespass
he
limits of the cube.
By
folding
the
great flabby
arms
across
the
stomach
(but
concealing
the
hand
of which Balzac was
so
vain),
Rodin called
attention
to
the
figure's
compactness
and
its invisible
Euclidian
container. The folded arms also
concealed
an
unheroic
chest,
and their
elevated
angle
caused
by
their
protruding
support
seems to
further the
propulsive
quality
of the man
when
seen from the
side
(Fig.i
o).
This
viewpoint
also allows us to see
how Rodin
has
made
com-
plementary
the
profiles
of the
stomach
and lower
curve of
the back. The
great
arc formed
by
the
back
in its
erect
pos-
ture adds to the impressionof pushing off from the ground,
while
the line
from
the head to the
right
foot creates
a
brak-
ing
action. It is from
a
left
rear view
that the naked
Balzac
most resembles the
Walking
Man. From the
front
it
is
ap-
parent
that the
squared
shoulders
dip
to
Balzac's
eft,
again
like
those
of
the
Walking
Man. This creates the
suggestion
of
slight
imbalance
(as
if
the
figure
were
listening
and
beginning
to
move)
that stimulates
the beholder to
move around the
sculpture
n order
to
see how its
balance is
recovered.
The head is the final
act,
and
as a
dramatist
(and casting
director)
Rodin does not
let us down. Rather than the fam-
ous
daguerreotype
of
Balzac,
I
believe
the source
of this
head is
from
that of a
living
model
(Figs.i, 14,
I15).
Specifi-
cally, I believe that the head of the naked Balzac is directly
based
upon
the wax head in
the Pollak Collection
in
Paris.15
(The
reader is invited
to make his own
compari-
sons.)
Having
studied
this
head
from all
sides
I am
con-
vinced
that it was
made from life and was not a
conceit
nor
synthetic
piecing
together
of obvious facial traits. Like the
bronze head of the
full
figuresculpture,
t has a
mergence
of
facial areas and featuresin a
three-dimensional
continuum
14
WERDET,
op.
cit.,
p.282.
In the
plaster
version of this
figure
Balzac
appears
to
be much softer in
body.
The bronze
casting,
which Rodin could
have
foreseen,
has the
effect
of
transforming
fat into
muscle in
many
areas.
15
Professor
de
Caso
pointed
out that the
daguerreotype
of
Balzac
had been
published
in
May 1891,
and that Rodin had
said,
'I
decided
to take
my
in-
spiration
from a
daguerreotype
plate
of
Balzac...'
op.
cit.,
P-9..
Doubt is cast
upon
Rodin's
having
seen
the
published
version of the
photo
when
it first
appeared, by
Judith
Cladel. She
wrote that one
day
to Rodin's
profound joy,
his friend Mathias Morhardt
brought
him a
reproduction
of this
daguerreotype
(op.
cit.,
p.x89).
She
does not
give
the date of
this
gift. Secondly,
Rodin's state-
ment about his use of
the
photograph
for
inspiration
was made
in
I899.
Just
when he made the decision to use it we don't
know,
nor how
narrowly
to use
the
word
'inspiration'
in
determining
what he took from it.
(I
find the difference
in hair and mouth areas
to
be
considerable.)
The
photograph
could
have
in-
spired
the
choice
of a
living
model. On more than one occasion Rodin
said he
did not
want a
photographic
type
of
portrait.
To
give
due
credit
to
Judith
Cladel,
while she did not
quote
Rodin's
state-
ment
on
the
photograph,
she wrote
just
after the above account
that
'this
moving image
definitely
fixed Rodin's
thought'.
With
regard
to the Pollak
wax head of
Balzac,
which was listed
in a
1931
H6tel Drouot
sale
catalogue
as an
6preuve nique',
Professor de
Caso
wrote
that
it 'is
more
likely
to be a
wax
preparation
for
a
cast than an
original
study'.
This
wax head shows no seams that
would
suggest
its
having
been cast
from
a
piece
mould and it does not have
a soft core.
Further,
the wax is thicker
than
would
be
required
for
such
a lost wax cast. Similarities
in
modelling
and
expression
along
with
identical measurements
ties the wax
with the
bronze
head
in the
naked Balzac and
only strengthens
my
belief
that the
77
cm and
46
cm.
high
versions of
the naked Balzac
are reductions.
612
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9/14
8. Detail of
the
legs
of
the
Walking
Man,
by Auguste
Rodin.
Bronze.
(Collection
Mr
Henry
Moore.)
9.
Detail of the
legs
of
the
Naked
Balzac,
by Auguste
Rodin.
Bronze.
(Rhode
Island School of
Design,
Providence.)
10.
Another
view
of
the
bronze
reproduced
in
Fig.6.
II.
Another
view
of
the
bronze
reproduced
in
Fig.6.
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10/14
12.
Another
view of the
bronze
reproduced
in
Fig.6.
13.
Another
view
of
the bronze
reproduced
in
Fig.6.
14.
Study
for
the head
of
Balzac,
by
Auguste
Rodin.
Wax;
height,
2
1i
cm.
(Collection
Madame
Marcel
Pollak,
Paris.)
Photo.
Leni
Iselin.
15.
Detail
from
Daguerreotype
of
Balzac.
1842.
Here
illustrated
in reverse.
Photo
Roger
Viollet.
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11/14
RODIN'S 'NAKED
BALZAC'
of
surface
and subsurface
orms,
an
asymmetry
and
gen-
uineness
of
expression
hat could
only
come from life and
not
a
photograph.
For a
daguerreotype
he
sitter
had
to
sustain
a
pose
for a
long period
of time and was of
course
severely
elf-conscious.
odin has
modelled
a
head
in
which
the
lips
are so
formedas
to
suggest
hat the
man
is about
to
speak.16
As with
the
head of
Baudelaire,
Rodin
eschewed
direct
copying
of
photographs,
ven
avoiding
obvious
acial
characteristicsuchas the cheeks' reasesormed tthe
edge
of
the
nostrils
and
passingdiagonally
downward.'7
One
of Rodin's
elf-imposed roblems
may
well
have been
how
in a
single
head
to show
the
multiple
moodsof his sub-
ject
which
no
single photograph
ould
capture.
Rodin was
often
criticized
or
making culpture
hat was
thought
o
be
prey
to accidental
ighting
effectswhich rendered t
shape-
less.
Yet,
when we move
about,
above and
below this
head
of
Balzacundervarious
ighting
conditions,
we can see that
it
always
holds
ts firmness f form and reveals
new
dimen-
sionsof
the
man's
character.These
plural
viewings
voke he
interpretation
f Balzacas
aloof,
benign,
smiling,
attentive,
meditative,
nd
on the
verge
of
speaking.18
In actual life Balzac had an extremelyexpressiveace,
one
that
instantlyresponded
o
his
thought
and
feeling.
Its
elasticity
was
partly
caused or
reinforced
by
alternating
periods
of
gauntness
and fullness
depending
upon
whether
he
was
working
and
dieting
or
relaxing
and
enjoying
self-
indulgence.
Balzac's
mobility
of
being
hasbeen
brought
back
to
life under
Rodin'shands. No
sculptor
was as
successful
as
he
in
thawing
out the frozen
or
suspended
ook or
two-
dimensional
haracter
of so
much
nineteenth-centuryort-
rait
sculpture.
This
kaleidoscopic
ortrayal
of Balzac
dep-
ends
upon
the
inconstancy
f
the facial surface
hroughout,
including
such
areas as
the
forehead,
where
portrait culp-
tors tended
to leave the surfacecalm. While
retaining
he
impression
of a
solid
cranial
substructure,Rodin,
like
Daumier n his
drawings,
built his surfaces
upon
the
plaus-
ible
if not actual
response
f
the
flesh
to the
contraction nd
expansion
f musclebeneath
t,
the
reaction fskin o
nerves.
Balzac's
modelled face is
figuratively
ike
a
simultaneous
mapping
of the
scope
of movements
nacted
by
each area
while the
head s
in
the same
position.
The
head is like
a
miniatureof
the
body
in
its
blockish-
ness
and violent surfaceundulations.
Observe
he
almost
right
angle
'cubing'
of the
back
and
top
of the
head
when
seen
from
the
side.)
The
subject's
heavy
jowls
are made
into
a
sculptural
asset
by
permitting
Rodin
to
fashion
a
short
but
thick neck
appropriate
in
proportion
and
texture to the
broad
square
shouldersand
softnessof the
pectoral
area. The
richnessand drama of the head are equal to Balzac's state-
ment
that
'I
shall
carry
a
world
in
my
head'.
This
type
of
extravagance
Rodin
readily
understood and
expected
of his
heroes.
As
when
we
judge
the
accuracy
of medieval
manu-
script
illustrations
by
comparing
them with
texts rather
than
nature,
so in
Rodin's
sculpture
must
we
keep
in
mind the
textual
images
such
as
Lamartine's
which nour-
ished his
thought
and
personal
criteria of the
portrait's
accuracy.
When we now take
in
the
sculpture
as
a
whole there
are
still
questions
as
well
as
answers
hat
flood to mind.
Why,
for
example,
is
it not
embarrassing
to look
at this
sculpture
of
such a naked
corpulent
man
standing
in
public?
Rodin once
said
that art
came not from
nature,
but from
the
artist.
We
see Balzac not
just
in
bronze
instead of
living
flesh,
but
through
the
eyes
and
hands of an artist
who had a
more
open
and
searching
view
of the
body
than
any
lover,
doctor,
or
tailor. The attitude
of
Balzac towards himself
in
this
sculp-
ture
strongly
affectsour
response.19
odin was
aware that
he knewof his
physical
defects,
but
arrogantly
nd
certainly
rightly
trusted o his
intelligence
and
personality
o
trans-
form
himself n
the
eyes
of
others.
Why
should
not
a
man
who had had
successful
ampaigns
with
platoons
f
France's
most beautifulwomentakea
commanding
position?Why
shouldnot
a
manwho
fervently
elieved,
and
publicized
his
conviction, hat greatcreative abourrequiredheroic cul-
inary
and sexual
excesses,
herefore
roudly
measure imself
against
his
fellow-men?Rodin shows
the Balzac
who
un-
stintingly
ave
of
himself
o the
public,
even to
assigning
is
physique
and
personality
o
numerous
characters
n
his
novels;
he
Balzacmeditative nd
observantwho was
above,
yet
of the
crowd;
the
Balzacwhosebrain and
vision
armed
himto mine
every
vein of
society.
The
Sculpture's eaning
Yes,
Rodin
has
given
us Balzac
the
fighter
and worker. Did
not Werdet describe
him
as
a
'courageous
athlete'
(which
Rodin
underlined),
and
elsewhere recount how he
spoke
of
rolling up
his sleeves to the
elbow, spitting
on
his
hands,
and
labouring
like
a
Negro?20
When
we re-read the life of
Balzac
we see that Rodin has also
given
us a
lie,
or
more
charitably
a
distortion.
Balzac's most
strenuous
physical
activities were
in
bed. How
could
a
man
prostrated
or a
month
by
a
muscle
pulled
while
jumping
a mud
puddle
be
considered
an
ath-
lete
?
Can
we
ascribe
physical bravery
to one who
by
pseudo-
nyms
and
backdoors evaded
military
service
and his
credi-
tors?
Would
a
worker
nearly cripple
himself
climbing
into
a
stage
coach,
or
sleep
on
a
gigantic
fur-covered
circular bed?
The
answer to
these
paradoxes
is that
Rodin used his in-
tense
anatomical
and
physiological study
of
living
models to
create
a
convincing
metaphor
of Balzac's
spirit
as a
creative
artist.
Historically
and
aesthetically,
Rodin's critics
in
the
Socidtd des Gens de Lettres were 'squares'. If they had known
thoroughly
Balzac's
life,
art
history
and what
Rodin had
done,
it is curious to think
that this
sculpture
should have
pleased
the Naturalists
and
displeased
the
Symbolists
instead
of
the
reverse.
Rodin's naked
Balzac
continues the
ancient
16
Professor Lewis
observed that
the conformation
of the
mouth
suggests
a man
about to
speak
or
enunciate
in
French.
17
I
have
discussed
this
sculpture
at
length
in an
essay,
'Rodin's
Portrait
of
Baudelaire',
published
in
25,
a
Festschrift
and
exhibition
catalogue
honouring
Henry Hope
on
his
twenty-five years
at
Indiana
University.
The
catalogue
was
published by
the
university
in
Bloomington,
Indiana in
1966.
18is
occioni's
portrait
of his
mother
titled
Anti-Grazioso
has been
observed
by
many
to
show
changing expressions
as one
moves around
it.
I
do not think
this makes Rodin a
Futurist,
but rather
that it
reflects
Boccioni's
indebtedness
to Rodin.
19
One could
argue
that Balzac's attitude in this
sculpture
presupposes
his
being
clothed.
I
agree
with Professor de
Caso
that
Rodin
probably
did
cast
this
whole
figure
in
bronze
during
his lifetime as well as
having
reductions
made in
plaster
for
gifts
to such devoted friends as
Judith
Cladel.
This
would
indicate that he
was
satisfied with the total
conception.
Here
is
where
we
need
information from the Mus6e
Rodin. MADAME
GOLDSCHEIDER's
recent
catalogue
(i.
JIANOU,
C.
GOLDSCHEIDER:
odin
[1967])
is
of no
help
on
this and
many
other
crucial
questions
of
dating
casts.
20
WERDET,
p.
cit.,
p.274.
615
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12/14
RODIN'S 'NAKED
BALZAC'
tradition
ot
what Colin
Eisler has
called
'the Athlete of
Virtue',
which
comprises
not
only
the
art of
Phidias,
Dona-
tello,
and
Michelangelo,
but
also
that of
Rubens, Bernini,
and
Puget.21
Furthermore,
in
keeping
with
changing
socio-
logical
interests
of
nineteenth-century
art,
Rodin was
broad-
ening
this tradition to include what
might
be
called the
'Virtuous
Labourer',
or
'Spiritual
Workman',
known to
us
in works
of
Daumier, Millet,
Van
Gogh,
Vela, Dalou,
and
Meunier,
as well as Rodin's own
project
for
a
great
Monu-
ment
to
Labour which
he undertook
in
1894.
Rodin
learned
about more
than
anatomy
and
beauty
from
his
study
of the
sculpture
of the
Greeks,
Donatello and
Michelangelo.
From these sources
he
had learned how
to
dramatize
the
movement
of the
spirit
even when the
body
was
not
in
action.
The
origin
of
the
Thinker,
for
instance,
is
in
the
Belvedere
torso of a
satyr, formerly thought
to be
Hercules.
The
past
taught
Rodin about
expressive
posturing
and
the
use of
the
body
as
a
metaphor
of
his
subject's
charac-
ter
and
spirit.
His own
John
the
Baptist
Preaching
was
inspired
by
an
athletic-looking
model,
which
in
turn was
consonant
with
Renaissance
and
baroque
ideals of
the
analogy
between
pagan athletes and Christian saints.22 This sculpture is in
the
Renaissance-baroque
tradition of
the
Baptist
as a
'fore-
runner',
possessed
of
a
vigorous
athletic
body
whose
physi-
cal
strength
makes
apparent
spiritual strength
exercised
in
the
struggle
against
disbelief,
the
desires of the
body,
the
enemies
of Christendom
and
the
Devil. Unlike
Falguiere,
who
inherited
the Balzac commission
after Rodin's
dismissal,
Rodin
continued
the
baroque
belief in the
body
as
a
full,
richly expressive
vehicle for
abstractions. Balzac was made
into
an athlete
of
the
spirit
Werdet
had used
his words
as
metaphorically
as Rodin
used
posture.
As
I
have elsewhere
pointed
out,
Rodin did not
react
against
the
art of
his own time for
its
subject-matter
or
metaphorizing.23
He believed
in
the rhetorical
or
didactic
function
of
sculpture
and
the
celebrating
of
great
men,
even
when
unwittingly
his
art
of
the
partial
figure
contributed
to the
demise
of these ideals.
By
comparison
with his
fel-
low
sculptors
before
1900,
Rodin
sought,
as did
Balzac,
to
make his
metaphors
more
timely,
convincing,
and
aestheti-
cally compelling
by
working
from life.
Posture,
psychological
insight
and flesh rather
than
attributes,
idealized
proportions
or
perfect
physiques
seemed for
Rodin
the
right way
to ex-
tend
this
tradition.
As shown
by
his
portraits
and memorial
sculptures,
Rodin
fully
shared
the
Renaissance and
baroque
attitude
that
there
was
a
fraternity
of heroes that included not
only
saints
and
statesmen
as
before,
but also creative
artists, writers,
painters,
musicians, and poets, and to which he added the
worker.
He
referred
to
himself and Balzac
as
workers,
and
didn't
discourage
others from
calling
him
a
poet.
Robustness
and
strenuous
posture
in
his
sculpture
are the continuations
of
those
qualities
admired
in
Rubens and
Puget,
as
they
evoked
the
spirit's vitality.
This is
why
his memorials to
Claude
Lorrain and Bastien
Lepage
and
Balzac
show active
postures
which
respectively
and
in
part
descend from those
of his own
Adam
and the Saint
John
or
Walking
Man. Balzac
was
certainly
not a full time
ascetic,
a
model of
continence
or
renunciation,
nor one
given
to the care
and
training
of his
body
for moral or
patriotic
reasons.
But
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