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The Gates of Hell
Commissioned in 1880 and intended as a monumental doorway for a Paris museum of decorative arts that was never built, The Gates of Hell became Rodin's lifelong project and an impetus for boundless artistic experimentation.
Inferno by the medieval Italian poet Dante Aligheiri inspired The Gates of Hell, which contains 180 figures -- some writhing in frenzied disorder, others stilled by the hopeless contemplation of their fate. Many of the tormented souls became subjects of sustained interest for Rodin, who subsequently reworked them in a range of media and sizes to create independent sculptures. |