Rodin Works: Christ and mary magdalenE |
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As
Rodin sometimes confided to his friends, he had abandaned his Catholic
faith after a period of intense repentment in a monastery, For an explanation, Elsen points
to a number of
incidents that utterly frustrated Rodin during the early 1890's:
his design for a 'Monument to Victor Hugo'
was declined in 1890, because it did not match to Injalbert's contribution
to the Panthéon; the installation of the 'Monument to Claude Lorraine' in
June
1892 was a public disaster, so
that Rodin's assistants had to travel to Nancy and adapt the pedestal; the
Calais commitee had no funds to cast 'The
Burghers of
Calais' and in 1895 ignored the artist's preferences regarding location and
The third denomination for Rodin's work, 'The Genius and Pity', puts the couple in the context of the sculptor's allegorical studies on the relationship between the gifted artist and his muse - a subject Rodin extensively explored while designing his 'Monument to Victor Hugo'. Another work dealing with this subject, 'The Poet and Love' (1896), shows the male protagonist in a pose reminding of 'The Torturted Prometheus', painted by Gustave Moreau in 1868. To the Romantic mind,
is was not uncommon to identify the roles of Christ,
Prometheus and Poet/Genius/Artist with each other; another example in
Rodin's own work is 'The Thinker', merging Dante's role as a brooding artist-philosopher with that of Christ in the Judgement
seat Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, assumes the role of the Oceanid, comforting Prometheus in Aeschylus drama , respectively that of the Muse - the proper function of 'The Meditation' in Rodin's rejected 'Monument to Victor Hugo', portraying another uncorruptable, exiled hero.
In 1907, a few lines from a poem by Laurent Tailhade were attached to a reproduction of Rodin's group, adding to its interpretation as a valediction to the sculptor's pupil, lover and spiritual companion (see also 'Farewell'): For one evening he bent towards
you his head
The marble carvings of 'Christ and Mary Magdalene are exhibited in the Musée Rodin and in the Collection Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza. From the Thyssen-Bornemisza marble copy, new plasters were drawn, now exhibited in the San Francisco and Maryhill Museums.
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following the
death of his sister Maria.
He rather fostered a pantheist vision, in which any element of Life and
Nature could be perceived as a representation of truth and beauty.
His occupation with a clearly religious
subject like 'Christ and Mary Magdalene' in 1894 is an exception and needs
some attention.
pedestal.
Finally, his passionate affair with Camille Claudel had reached the stage
of permanent crisis, Camille and Rose combatting each
other openly. In
this adversary situation, the sculptor could easily identify with the character of
Christ - a man with a higher mission, betrayed, captured and tormented. For
solace, a kneeling 'Meditation' was added, holding the
the tortured Saviour in her arms. Maybe it was no coincidence Rodin at his
point in time evoked the figure of Mary Magdalene, bearing the name of his
beloved sister.
The alternative titles
support Elsen's analysis and add new layers of meaning: 'Prometheus and the Oceanid'
refers to the rebellious Titan who had stolen the fire from the Olympus
and brought it back to mortal mankind; as a punishment, Prometheus was chained
to a rock, visited daily by an enormous eagle eating his liver. Gifted with
forethought and unwilling to accept the compromises Zeus offered him, he was perceived as the prototype of
the uncorruptable hero, suffering for saving humanity from the dark and
the cold. The
drawing by Christian Schüssele (1824-79) shows an idealized, suffering
Prometheus during his daily ordeal.
: the
triumphant reversal of Golgotha's agony. But also
other artists from the turn of the century associated the innovative virtues of genius with pain and hardship.
'Christ and Mary Magdalene' was first
saved as a
plaster, now kept in the reserves of Meudon.
In this early version, the bodies of Chtist and Mary Magdalene do not
actually touch each other. Only in the marble versions subsequently
carved, the marcottage of the 'Meditation' and the
Christ-Prometheus-Genius is adapted into a unified design, allowing for a
more natural joining - just like in the case of 
