| The Falling Man | |
|---|---|
| French: L'Homme qui tombe | |
 The Falling Man, 3/4 view | |
| Artist | Auguste Rodin |
| Year | 1882 |
| Type | Sculpture |
| Medium | Bronze |
| Dimensions | 58.8 cm× 39.9 cm× 31.2 cm(14.9 in× 10.1 in× 7.9 in) |
| Location | Museo Soumaya, Mexico City |
The Falling Man (in French : L'Homme qui tombe) is a sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin modeled in 1882 [1] and is part of Rodin's emblematic group The Gates of Hell .
This figure represents the cumulative human forces, cast upon the eternal emptiness of Hell. [2] In The Gates of Hell, the sculpture appears in three different places: at the top of the left door, at the top of the right pilaster — the one holding Crouching Woman as part of I am beautiful [3] — and as the central piece of Avarice at the bottom of the Gates. Judging by the position of the first figure, some authors have suggested that Rodin suspected his commission would be canceled [4] because the arched position of the man would make difficult, if not impossible, to open and close the doors, hindering its function. [5] : 248–249
Even though this figure appears in different directions in The Gates, its muscles stay the same; which hints at Rodin's idea of taking an artistic license regarding gravity. [Note 1] This concept heralds the modernist movement, which favors expression over verisimilitude.
Meditating on how a figure in sculpture was expected to adhere to the pull of the earth, Rodin came to ask, What if the figures could be as free of gravity in sculpture as they are in painting? (...)
It was while the working on The Gates of Hell that Rodin may have pondered the tyranny of gravity over sculpture, leading to a self-interrogatory, What if I change the orientation of a well-made figure without adjusting anatomy in its new relation to gravity? The Falling man in three orientations, The Martyr and other figures from The Gates of Hell were the answer...
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.
The Thinker is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, usually placed on a stone pedestal.
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. The figures range from 15 centimetres (6 in) high up to more than one metre (3 ft). Several of the figures were also cast as independent free-standing statues.
The Martyr or The Little Martyr is a c.1885 plaster sculpture of a naked dead or sleeping female figure by Auguste Rodin, now in the Musee 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.
Man with the Broken Nose is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin created between 1863 and 1864 and approved by the Salon in 1875. It is considered the first by Rodin in which life is represented over the grace pervading the academic circles and aesthetic of the time.
I Am Beautiful, also known as The Abduction, is a sculpture of 1882 by the French artist Auguste Rodin, inspired in a fragment from Charles Baudelaire's collection of poems Les Fleurs du mal.
Fugitive Love is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin made between 1886 and 1887, both sculpted in marble and cast in bronze. It represents a man and a woman embracing each other on top of a rock. More specifically, the author was inspired by the story of Francesca da Rimini's love affair with Paolo Malatesta, an allusion to Dante Alighieri's depiction of lust on the second circle of Hell in his Inferno.
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.
Meditation or The Interior Voice is an 1886 sculpture by Auguste Rodin, showing a young woman resting her head on her right shoulder.
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.
Torso of Adele is an 1878-1884 sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, originally modelled in plaster before being worked in terracotta.
Adam is an 1880-1881 statue of Adam by Auguste Rodin, first exhibited at the Paris Salon that year entitled The Creation of Man.
Albert Edward Elsen, Jr. was an American art historian and educator. A scholar of the work of Auguste Rodin, Elsen was the Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University.
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Media related to The Falling Man by Auguste Rodin at Wikimedia Commons
