He Is No Longer A Dreamer, He Is A Creator
A small introduction to Rodin's Thinker, one of art history's most important statues
You probably know this statue as a famous artwork called 'The Thinker.'
It is Dante, a Florentine poet of the late Middle Ages, who has been transformed into the universal figure of a creator.
The difference? Literally, in taking one's clothes off.
In Greek and Roman classical art, a man's clothing revealed his status in life—general, magistrate, whatever—while nudity elevated him from human to hero.
And since the distance between a heroic nude and a god is very thin, stripping off and climbing on a pedestal elevated a human being to the realm of the divine and eternal.
So, our friend Auguste Rodin twice explained what he meant with 'the Thinker.' Let's read what the great man said:
"The Thinker' has a story. In the days long gone by, I conceived the idea of The Gates of Hell.' Before the door, seated on a rock, Dante, thinking of the plan of his poem...
This project was not realized. Thin, ascetic, Dante in his straight robe separated from the whole world would have been without meaning.
Guided by my first inspiration, I conceived another thinker, a naked man, seated upon a rock, his feet drawn under him, his fist against his teeth, he dreams.
The fertile thought slowly elaborates itself within his brain. He is no longer dreamer, he is creator."
And, soon after his death, this interview is published:
"Nature gives me my model, life and thought; the nostrils breathe, the heart beats, the lungs inhale, the being thinks and feels, has pains and joys, ambitions, passions, emotions...
What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes."
There later will be a Story on why 'the Thinker' is one of art history's most important statues.
Sources
The first quote comes from Marcel ADAM, Le Penseur, Gil Blas, 7 Juillet 1904
The second quote from the newspaper Toronto Saturday Night, December 1, 1917, in Rodin by Albert E Elsen Museum of Modern Art, New York 1963.
The illustration is a copy of the original photo by Edward Steichen - Rodin and "The Thinker" 1902
The bronze statue is from the Metropolitan Museum