The Burghers of Calais

Last updated

The Burghers of Calais
Statue bourgeois calais rodin.jpg
Artist Auguste Rodin
Year188489
Type Bronze
Dimensions201.6 cm× 205.4 cm× 195.9 cm(79+38 in× 80+78 in× 77+18 in)
Location Calais, France
Coordinates 50°57′8.5″N1°51′12″E / 50.952361°N 1.85333°E / 50.952361; 1.85333
The Burghers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Burghers of Calais MET DP221863.jpg
The Burghers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Burghers of Calais (French : Les Bourgeois de 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. [1] [2]

Contents

History

In 1346, England's Edward III, after victory in the Battle of Crécy, laid siege to Calais, while Philip VI of France ordered the city to hold out at all costs. Philip failed to lift the siege, and starvation eventually forced the city to parley for surrender. [3]

The contemporary chronicler Jean Froissart (c. 1337 – c. 1405) tells a story of what happened next: Edward offered to spare the people of the city if six of its leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded they walk out wearing nooses around their necks, and carrying the keys to the city and castle. One of the wealthiest of the town leaders, Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first, and five other burghers joined with him. [4] Saint Pierre led this envoy of volunteers to the city gates. It was this moment, and this poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice, and willingness to face imminent death which Rodin captured in his sculpture, scaled somewhat larger than life. [5]

According to Froissart's story, the burghers expected to be executed, but their lives were spared by the intervention of England's queen, Philippa of Hainault, who persuaded her husband to exercise mercy by claiming their deaths would be a bad omen for her unborn child. [4]

Composition

The City of Calais had attempted to erect a statue of Eustache de Saint Pierre, eldest of the burghers, since 1845. Two prior artists were prevented from creating the sculpture: David d'Angers by his death, and Auguste Clésinger by the Franco-Prussian War. In 1884 the municipal corporation of the city invited several artists, Rodin amongst them, to submit proposals for the project. [6]

Rodin's design, which included all six figures rather than just de Saint Pierre, was controversial. The public felt that it lacked "overtly heroic antique references" which were considered integral to public sculpture. [1] It was not a pyramidal arrangement and contained no allegorical figures. It was intended to be placed at ground level, rather than on a pedestal. The burghers were not presented in a positive image of glory; instead, they display "pain, anguish and fatalism". To Rodin, this was nevertheless heroic, the heroism of self-sacrifice. [7]

In 1895 the monument was installed in Calais on a large pedestal in front of Parc Richelieu, a public park, contrary to the sculptor's wishes, who wanted contemporary townsfolk to "almost bump into" the figures and feel solidarity with them. Only later was his vision realised, when the sculpture was moved in front of the newly completed town hall of Calais, where it now rests on a much lower base. [8]

Depicted persons

The six burghers depicted are: [9]

Casts

Cast in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. The Burghers of Calais - Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden.JPG
Cast in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Under French law no more than twelve original casts of works of Rodin may be made. [10]

The 1895 cast of the group of six figures still stands in Calais. Other original casts stand at:

and

Memorial Court, Stanford University Les-bourgeois-de-Calais.jpg
Memorial Court, Stanford University


Copies of individual statues are:

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Linduff, David G. Wilkins, Bernard Schultz, Katheryn M. (1994). Art past, art present (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. pp.  454. ISBN   0-13-062084-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. 1 2 "Burghers of Calais". The National Museum of Western Art. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  3. Wagner, John A. (2006b). "Calais, Siege of (1346–1347)". Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Greenwood. pp. 73–74. ISBN   978-0313327360.
  4. 1 2 Froissart, Jean, Chronicles of England France, Spain, and the adjoining countries, (1805 translation by Thomas Jhones), Book I, Chapter 145
  5. Jiano (1970), pp. 69, 81; Laurent (1989), p. 82
  6. Jianou (1970), p. 69.
  7. Elsen (1963), p. 72; Laurent (1989), p. 82.
  8. Laurent (1989), p. 89.
  9. "Les Bourgeois de Calais". Archives, Pas-de-Calais. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  10. "Original bronze casts". Musée Rodin. Retrieved 6 January 2022..
  11. Hall, James (2003). "Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais". In Verdi, Richard (ed.). Saved! 100 years of the National Art Collections Fund. Scala. pp. 128–33.
  12. "The Burghers of Calais". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  13. "Welcome – Plateau". plateau.or.kr.
  14. "With restructuring, a debate rages over Samsung's precious art collection". Hankyoreh. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  15. The Burghers of Calais, Plateau 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  16. "Burghers of Calais, (sculpture)". SIRIS
  17. 35 works by Rodin, 7 by his contemporaries, given to Stanford, Stanford University News Service (13 July 1992)
  18. Rodin! The Complete Stanford Collection, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University
  19. RodinWingGuidebook.pdf (spmoa.shizuoka.shizuoka.jp)
  20. "Auguste Rodin bio profile". Collections Record Listing. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  21. "Davidson College Art Galleries". Davidson College Art Galleries. Davidson College. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  22. "Art on the Davidson College Campus". Auguste Rodin – Art on the Davidson College Campus. Davidson College Library. Retrieved 6 April 2007.
  23. "park, skulptur, Mannen med nøklene". oslobilder.no.
  24. Barry, Dan; Rashbaum, William K. (20 May 2002). "Born of Hell, Lost After Inferno; Rodin Work From Trade Center Survived, and Vanished". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved 1 December 2017.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auguste Rodin</span> French sculptor (1840–1917)

François Auguste René Rodin was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, and deeply pocketed surface in clay. He is known for such sculptures as The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Charles Cazin</span> French painter

Jean-Charles Cazin was a French landscapist, museum curator and ceramicist.

<i>The Thinker</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

The Thinker is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, situated atop 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musée Rodin</span> Paris museum dedicated primarily to the works of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin

The Musée Rodin of Paris, France, is an art museum that was opened in 1919, primarily dedicated to the works of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. It has two sites: the Hôtel Biron and surrounding grounds in central Paris, as well as just outside Paris at Rodin's old home, the Villa des Brillants at Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine. The collection includes 6,600 sculptures, 8,000 drawings, 8,000 old photographs and 7,000 objets d'art. The museum receives 700,000 visitors annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eustache de Saint Pierre</span>

Eustache de Saint Pierre is the best-known figure of the group of six known as The Burghers of Calais, the first to volunteer and surrender, wearing "a shirt and a rope around his neck" to the King of England at that time, Edward III, to save the people of Calais.

<i>The Gates of Hell</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodin Museum</span> Art museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Rodin Museum is an art museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that contains one of the largest collections of sculptor Auguste Rodin's works outside Paris. Opened in 1929, the museum is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The museum houses a collection of nearly 150 objects containing bronzes, marbles, and plasters by Rodin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CaixaForum Madrid</span> Museum in Madrid, Spain

CaixaForum Madrid is a cultural center in Madrid, Spain. Located in Paseo del Prado in a former power station, it is owned by the not-for-profit banking foundation "la Caixa". The art center opened its doors in 2008 and it hosts temporary art exhibitions and cultural events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern sculpture</span> Era of sculpture beginning with Auguste Rodin

Modern sculpture is generally considered to have begun with the work of Auguste Rodin, who is seen as the progenitor of modern sculpture. While Rodin did not set out to rebel against the past, he created a new way of building his works. He "dissolved the hard outline of contemporary Neo-Greek academicism, and thereby created a vital synthesis of opacity and transparency, volume and void". Along with a few other artists in the late 19th century who experimented with new artistic visions in sculpture like Edgar Degas and Paul Gauguin, Rodin invented a radical new approach in the creation of sculpture. Modern sculpture, along with all modern art, "arose as part of Western society's attempt to come to terms with the urban, industrial and secular society that emerged during the nineteenth century".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art</span> Art museum in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

The Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art is a prefectural museum in Shizuoka City, Japan, created in commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the inauguration of the Shizuoka Prefectural Assembly.

<i>Cybele</i> (sculpture) Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

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.

<i>Pierre de Wiessant</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

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.

<i>The Three Shades</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

The Three Shades is a sculptural group produced in plaster by Auguste Rodin in 1886 for his The Gates of Hell. He made several individual studies for the Shades before finally deciding to put them together as three identical figures gathered around a central point. The heads hang low so that the neck and shoulders form an almost-horizontal plane. They were to be placed above the gates looking down on the viewer.

<i>Eustache de Saint Pierre</i> (sculpture) Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Eustache de Saint Pierre is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin, now in the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City. It was conceived between 1885 and 1886 as part of his The Burghers of Calais group. The other figures in the group were also cast as individual figures.

<i>Jean de Fiennes</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Jean de Fiennes, in real life Jean de Vienne, is a sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, first produced between 1885 and 1886. A bronze cast of it is now in the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City.

<i>Jean dAire</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Jean d'Aire is a sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, first conceived around 1885 as part of the planning for his group The Burghers of Calais.

Andrieu d’Andres is a figure by the French artist Auguste Rodin. It is part of his group of the six figures The Burghers of Calais.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacques de Wissant</span>

Jacques de Wissant was, together with his brother Pierre, one of the six burghers of Calais. Because of the name, it can be assumed that the brothers are from the village of the same name, Wissant, near Calais.

References

Further reading