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Rodin, Auguste
(French, 1840-1917)
The Kiss (Paolo and Francesca)
1886
Painted plaster
34 x 20 1/2 x 23 1/4 in.
Gift of Mrs. Will Ross in Memory of Her Husband
M1966.117

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Arguably the only figurative sculptor to rival Michelangelo, Auguste Rodin created a body of work that translated into sculpture the Impressionist principles of spontaneous and direct observation from life and the transitory effects of light on form. His rough-hewn and modeled surfaces capture light in ways that are the sculptural equivalents of pictorial broken brush strokes and fragmentation of color. Variations of Rodin’s works exist in plaster, marble, and bronze.

The Kiss represents Dante’s doomed lovers Francesca and her brother-in-law Paolo, who were consigned to the Inferno for their illicit passion. They symbolize the human tragedy of a passion fated to endure eternal hopelessness. The figures were intended as part of Rodin’s monumental Gates of Hell—the portal to a proposed state museum of decorative arts—which was never completed but provided the sculptor with inspiration for many of his most important works.

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