Rodin Works: the fallen angel, Illusions received by the Earth |
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Around 1895, Rodin produced this combination of 'The Caryatid' with the female figure of 'Eternal Springtime', which was in turn derived from 'Torso of Adèle', the female version of the twin Triton torsos Rodin designed for the Villa Neptune in Nice in 1879.
'Chûte des anges', the fall of the rebellious angels led by
Lucifer was a motif presented by many Christian artists. The Cleveland Museum,
Ohio, owns a marble group by Rodin actually called 'The Fall of the Angels'
[Spear, 1967, Plate 88].
In 'The Fallen Angel', Rodin has switched from plural to singular, and so
changes the emotional impact of the composition: this gentle winged
creature, separated from Lucifer's crowd, looks virginlike,
innocent, as if dropped from heaven by some regrettable accident.
Whereas Breughel and Rubens depict their fallen angels as if The later titles 'Illusions received by the Earth' and 'The Fall of Icarus' evidently imply an association with 'The Fall of Illusion, Sister of Icarus', in another version equally named 'The Fall of Icarus', featuring the winged 'Martyr'. This connection confirms 'The Fallen Angel' deals with failed revolt, sympathising with the courage to try and realise grand ideals, even when this quest proves to be based on illusion. In Rodin's assemblage of a crouching with a reclining figure, the caressing embrace provides the element of consolation, denied to his isolated winged 'Martyr' in 'Fall of Icarus' and his lonely 'Prodigal Son' (1886), but movingly present in 'Christ and Mary Magadalene', created around 1893-94 and executed in marble as well.
If we abstract from religious, mythological/allegorical and auto-biographical associations, the group shows the bodies of two women intimately entwined, as already explored in 'Damned women', in several variations and under different names, like 'The Metamorphoses of Ovid', 'Bacchantes embracing', etc. Such titles made these representations more acceptable to the public, so that Michelle Facos with regard to 'The Fallen Angel' speaks of a "crypto-lesbian theme". We will find this subject again in Rodin's later erotic drawings, this time without any mythological or literary pretext. Based on these successful marble carvings, presenting the group - originally a marcottage - as if made 'in one piece', new bronze casts were made by the Alexis Rudier Foundry. At least one bronze cast was derived from a marble carving that - according to Elsen - was made for the Hunterian Art Gallery.
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they had been satanic creatures from the very start, Rodin's 'Fallen
Angel' commands our admiration by her celestial beauty and languid sensuality.
After his early confrontation with 
been very
sceptical of Catholic beliefs;
like Charles Baudelaire, Octave Mirbeau
and Félicien Rops, he was rather enthrilled by the eternally restless powers of evil,
mysterious, seductive and dangerous - like 'The Sin' portrayed by Franz von Stuck,
the sensation at the exhibition of the Munich Secession in 1893.
In 'Fallen Angel', though, the veil of darkness is replaced by the
exuberant flow of blonde hair and the translucent quality of white marble. Like in 
After unwinged bronze casts had
been made from earlier plaster versions, the composition was adapted again
and executed in
marble. According to Elsen, it
was only at this stage that the wings were added, while the base was enlarged so
that the legs of the angel would meet structural support. Referring to the
example in Lille, Daniel Rosenfeld describes
how Rodin's praticiens left parts of the
marble block with a roughened surface while the figures were polished
in Fin-de-Siècle manner; different types of chisels were employed
to reach
the desired effect.
