Documentary: The Gates of Hell

"Auguste Rodin: The Gates of Hell" from Canal Educatif à la Demande

This twenty-five minute doctumentary  from Canal Educatif à la Demande is a discussion of the monumental Auguste Rodin sculpture "The Gates of Hell," which exists in two radically different versions. The first version is the basis of many of Rodin's best known sculptures, including his most famous, "The Thinker," which was originally conceived as a portrait of Dante gazing down at Hell from above. This version of "The Gates of Hell" is notorious among art historians for having never been cast in bronze during Rodin's lifetime.  Despite having never been completed, the piece is now considered to be one of the greatest sculptures of the modern era.  The question this documentary considers is if Rodin's monumental masterpiece a failure?  However, it also explains how the artist used this work to solve major aesthetic issues that faced modern artists at that time.

For more, read this article by Rodin expert Albert E. Elsen. It was scanned from a book, and it clearly wasn't proofread (e.g. very often "h" gets turned into "li" and numbers are generally a mess).

 

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