Auguste Rodin

“ Man may be the forger of his happiness.
The Antique and Nature are bound by the same mystery. The Antique—it is the human workman arrived at a supreme degree of mastery. But Nature is above him. The mystery of Nature is even more insoluble than that of genius. The glory of the Antique is in having understood Nature.
O, Venus of Melos, the prodigious sculptor that fashioned you knew how to make the thrill of that generous nature flow in you, the thrill 12of life itself—O, Venus, arch of the triumph of life, bridge of truth, circle of grace! ”

“ Man is incapable of creating, of inventing. He can only approach nature, submissively, lovingly. For the rest, she will not disappear from his sight; he has but to look, she will let him see what by force of patience 9he has arrived at understanding—that only. And yet the part is beautiful! He is an equal of Prometheus, he, who has known how to ravish from nature the life we adore in the Venus of Melos.
Nothing will take the place of persevering study. To it alone the secret of life delivers itself. Give your life patiently, passionately to understanding life. ”

“ What splendour in your beautiful torso seated firmly on your solid legs, and in those half tones that sleep upon your breasts, upon your splendid belly, large like the sea! It is the rhythmic beauty of the sea without end.... You are in truth the mother of gods and of men. ”

“ But you, you live, you think, and your thoughts are those of a woman, and not of I know not what superior being, foreign, imaginary, artificial. You are made only of truth; and it is of truth alone that your omnipotence is born. There is nothing strong, there is nothing beautiful outside of the truth. ”

“ The modelling of the human being has with them all the beauty of the curved lines of flowers. And the profiles are secure, ample like those of great mountains; it is architecture. Above all they are simple; they are calm like the serpents of Apollo.
Perhaps it is the terms of anatomy that have had the deplorable effect of imposing on the mind the prejudice toward the division of the shapes 14of the body. The great geometric and magnetic line of life hence remains as if broken in the regard of the passer-by. ”

“ Supported by these bases that will not weaken, sure of their solidity, the flesh bounds with joy as if it would escape the redoubled 20shadows deepening under the breasts, that they may rise from the torso, whence glowing light would seem to emanate. ”

“ Your truth is within reach of everyone: it is woman, whom each one thinks he knows, the intimate companion of men; yet nobody has seen her, the wise not more than the simple. And the trees, who looks at them? ”

“ The work of art protests against this false and factitious idea of division. Those concordant shapes that pass one into the other as undulate the knots of the reptile, and that suddenly penetrate, they are the body in its magnificent unity. ”

“ From the boundaries of the two worlds’ throngs come to contemplate you, venerated marble; and the twilight deepens in the room that you may be more clearly seen, shining 4alone, while the silent hours pass, heavy with admiration. ”

“ The gesture of the other arm holds the draperies over the thighs to gather below the belly fervent shadow.
Shadow, desired by the artist, makes for all this figure a first tunic, veiling certain shapes and discovering others of them. Looking closely, one sees that all these varied tones are underscored by a single dark line, the line of strength.
It is the principle of beautiful sculpture as of beautiful architecture. The expression of life, in order to keep the infinite suppleness of reality, 25must never be stopped or fixed. ”

“ This figure belongs to the epoch of the Venus of Melos. It gives me the same sensation of modelling, powerful and abundant; it has the same ease in the grandeur of its forms, although they are materially of reduced proportions. What calm intoxication it breathes and inspires, or, rather, what luxury of pleasure!
The beautiful shadows that caress it have all the same direction, turn all in the same sense. With what science, with what wisdom they cause the breasts to jut, and then, slumbering 24on the wide belly, vigorously model the thighs! ”

“ For me the antique masterpieces are mingled in my memory with all the pleasures of my youth; or rather the Antique is my youth itself that rises again to my heart and hides from me my age. In the Louvre, of old, like saints to a monk in his cloister, the Olympian gods said to me all that a young man might usefully hear ”

“ The light has no spectators.
Nevertheless, except through confining 8oneself to the observation of reality, constant, scrupulous, and ever more profound, no one can accomplish anything. There are people who say to you, “The Ideal.” If this word is not void of meaning, it signifies only a stupidity. The Ideal! The Fantasy! But the realities of nature surpass our most ambitious fancies. Our thought is but an imperceptible point in nature. ”

“ In the synthesis of the work of art, the arms, the legs, count only when they meet in accordance with the planes that associate them in a same effect, and it is thus in nature, who cares not for our analytical descriptions. ”

“ The generative profile of that torso helps us to understand, reveals to us the proportions of the world. And the miracle is in this, that the assembled profiles, in the sense of depth, of length, and of width, express, by an incomprehensible magic, the human soul and its passions, and the character that shapes the heart of beings.
13The ancients have obtained by a minimum of gesture, by their modelling, both the individual character and the grace borrowed from grandeur that relates the human form to the forms of the universal life. ”

“ The great artists proceed as nature composes and not as anatomy decrees. They never sculpture any muscle, any nerve, any bone for itself; it is the whole at which they aim, 16and which they express; it is by large planes that their work vibrates in the light or enters into the shadow.
Thus from the point whence I am looking at the Venus of Melos, all of the three-quarter profile is streaming with light, while the opposite side bathes in the shadow. Toward the base of this profile one just distinguishes half-tones. ”

“ Badly proportioned the results are truly blasphemies against nature. They no longer have eloquence, and breed only harshness and meagreness. From a distance, moreover, measure yields the most powerful results. The Venus of Melos in particular owes to this moderation her power of effect. ”

“ These divine fragments, these marbles, older than two thousand years, speak to me louder, move me more than human beings. 11In its turn may the new century meditate upon these marvels, and may it try to ascend to them through intelligence and love. It will owe to them its highest joys. ”

“ Left to themselves the ignorant see only the apparent details of things; the source of expression, the synthesis alone eloquent, escapes them. It is lamentable that anatomic description gives in some measure support to the 15plastic ignorance of the multitude, in calling attention, through its terms, to the different parts of which the architecture of the body is composed. ”