| Cybele | |
|---|---|
 A bronze cast in Houston's Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden in 2019 | |
| Artist | Auguste Rodin |
| Year | c. 1889-90/Enlarged 1904 |
| Type | Sculpture |
| Dimensions | 160 cm× 79 cm× 120 cm(63 in× 31 in× 46 in) |
Cybele is a sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin. It is one of the first of Rodin's partial figures known as "fragments" to be displayed as sculpture in its own right, rather than an incomplete study. [1]
Inspired by fragments of Greek art [2] and incomplete work by Michelangelo, [1] Rodin modeled a small study of a headless, seated woman. Following a scandal in 1877 when Rodin was wrongly accused of casting The Age of Bronze from life, the artist usually preferred to make sculptures that were smaller than life. [3] Rodin's model was one of his favorites, Anna Abruzzesi, one of a pair of sisters he often used. [2] [3] Art critic Georges Grappe dated the sculpture to 1889 and stated without providing a source that it was a study for The Gates of Hell . [4]
In 1904, Rodin's assistant Henri Lebossé created an enlarged plaster version of the work [2] using a machine invented by Achille Collas. [5] This monumental work was displayed as A Figure at the 1905 Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. [1] [2] At that time, the sculpture was informally known by Rodin's friends and workers as Abruzzesi Seated after the woman who served as the model. [2]
It wasn't until 1914 that the work acquired its current name, Cybele , after the fertile Phrygian mother goddess. A bronze cast of the enlarged version was exhibited as Cybele at an exhibition at Grosvenor House in London that year. The ample figure of the sculpture may have suggested the title to Rodin. [2]
The plaster version displayed at the 1905 Salon is now at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. [3] Many bronze casts have been made that are displayed at locations including:
Camille Rosalie Claudel was a French sculptor known for her figurative works in bronze and marble. She died in relative obscurity, but later gained recognition for the originality and quality of her work. The subject of several biographies and films, Claudel is well known for her sculptures including The Waltz and The Mature Age.
The Thinker is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, usually placed on a stone pedestal. The work depicts a nude male figure of heroic size sitting on a rock. He is seen leaning over, his right elbow placed on his left thigh, holding the weight of his chin on the back of his right hand. The pose is one of deep thought and contemplation, and the statue is often used as an image to represent philosophy.
The Burghers of Calais is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin in twelve original castings and numerous copies. It commemorates an event during the Hundred Years' War, when Calais, a French port on the English Channel, surrendered to the English after an eleven-month siege. The city commissioned Rodin to create the sculpture in 1884 and the work was completed in 1889.
The Gates of Hell is a monumental bronze sculptural group work by French artist Auguste Rodin that depicts a scene from the Inferno, the first section of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. It stands at 6 metres high, 4 metres wide and 1 metre deep (19.7×13.1×3.3 ft) and contains 180 figures.
Bernard Gerald Cantor was the founder and chairman of securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald.
The Walking Man is a bronze sculpture by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. This sculpture was made in 1907.
The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, formerly the Stanford University Museum of Art, and commonly known as the Cantor Arts Center, is an art museum on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California. The museum first opened in 1894 and consists of over 130,000 sq ft (12,000 m2) of exhibition space, including sculpture gardens. The Cantor Arts Center houses the largest collection of sculptures by Auguste Rodin outside of Paris and the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, with 199 works, most in bronze but others in different media. The museum is open to the public and charges no admission.
Iris Cantor is a New York City and Los Angeles -based philanthropist, with a primary interest in medicine and the arts. Cited as among the 50 top contributors in the United States, as head of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, her foundation has donated several hundred million dollars to museums, universities and hospitals since 1978.
The Spirit of Eternal Repose is a 1898–1899 sculpture of a sprite by French artist Auguste Rodin.
The Falling Man is a sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin modeled in 1882 and is part of Rodin's emblematic group The Gates of Hell.
Pierre de Wissant is a bronze sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin, part of his sculptural group The Burghers of Calais. This sculpture represents one of the six burghers who, according to Jean Froissart surrendered themselves in 1347, at the beginning of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), in order to save the inhabitants of the French city of Calais from the English laying siege to the city.
Ugolino and his sons is a plaster sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin, part of the sculptural group known as The Gates of Hell. As an independent piece, it was exhibited by its author in Brussels (1887), Edinburgh (1893), Genoa (1896), Florence (1897), Netherlands (1899) and in his own retrospective in 1900.
Avarice and Lust is a sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin, conceived between 1885 and 1887, representing two of the seven capital sins and is part of his sculptural group The Gates of Hell, where it can be found in the lower part of the right door. It's possible that the name was inspired by Victor Hugo's poem Après une lecture du Dante:
Andromeda is a sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, named after Andromeda. It is one of the sculptures produced as part of his The Gates of Hell project and appears on the left door next to the personification of Day and on the right door as part of the group showing a falling winged genius.
Glaucus is a sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, first conceived in 1886 as a representation of the mythological figure Glaucus, son of Poseidon. Originally made in plaster, bronze casts of it are now in the Brooklyn Museum and the Museo Soumaya.
Despair or Despair at the Gate is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin that he conceived and developed from the early 1880s to c. 1890 as part of his The Gates of Hell project. The figure belongs to a company of damned souls found in the nine circles of Hell described by Dante in The Divine Comedy. Other title variations are Shade Holding her Foot, Woman Holding Her Foot, and Desperation. There are numerous versions of this work executed as both plaster and bronze casts and carved marble and limestone.
Damned Women is a sculpture created by Auguste Rodin between 1885 and 1890 as part of his The Gates of Hell project—it appears on the upper right as the counterpart to The Fallen Caryatid.
Polyphemus is an 1888 sculpture by Auguste Rodin, showing Polyphemus and his love for the Nereid Galatea, as told in Book XIII of Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Mask of a Weeping Woman is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin, initially produced as a pair with Weeping Woman for the first version of his The Gates of Hell in 1885. The two pieces were intended to appear on the centre of each panel. They were later moved by Rodin himself, who instead placed Mask on the lower part of the left panel.
Media related to The Cybele by Auguste Rodin at Wikimedia Commons
