The Death of Adonis (Rodin)
Rodin's marble shows Aphrodite mourning the dying Adonis.
Carved from white marble, this Rodin sculpture is signed “A RODIN” on its base. It shows the goddess Aphrodite grieving beside the fallen Adonis. The primary version resides at the Musée Rodin, while a second is located at the Museo Soumaya.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Auguste Rodin
- Medium
- Bronze
- Museum
- Musée d'arts de Nantes
Facts from the source article.
History
By the 1880s, Rodin's rising reputation meant more people wanted his sculptures, so many pieces he had first made in a smaller size began leaving his much larger studio. This particular work is a complete composition formed by joining figures that were originally designed separately. Over time, it has been called Idylle, Le Printemps, Le Printemps de la vie, and Les Océanides. It depicts the myth of Adonis, with Aphrodite pressing her lips to the dying young man. The sculpture was placed on The Gates of Hell, sitting on one of the four corbels at the top, directly below The Three Shadows. The sorrow felt by Aphrodite, the mother of Cupid, comes from the remorse shown by the group of figures in the lower right corner of the doorway. In this marble version, the smooth, finished bodies stand in contrast to the rough surface of the tree. From this point onward, Rodin aimed for perfection in works that look incomplete, where a fragment suggests the whole. The group of figures was first shown in a drawing, sketched in the margin of Charles Baudelaire's poem "Poison" for the Gallimard edition of Flowers of Evil. The marble itself includes these lines: "Opium increases that which has no limits / [...], delves [...], excavates pleasure and pleasures / blacks and melancholy. / And it fills the soul even more than it fits in it./ It is not worth the poison that your eyes distill / [...] lakes where my soul trembles and looks inverted / and my dreams flow / to be satiated in those bitter vortices."
Inspiration
Rodin made numerous studies of human expressions, inspired by allegories and Greek mythologies. His main sources of inspiration were the literary works of Ovid, Dante, and Baudelaire. Myths and characters came to life through different materials and received a unique interpretation. Adonis was born from the Cypriot tree into which the gods converted his mother, and was the fruit of the incestuous union between Myrrha and her father Ciniras, king of Pafos. He was raised by nymphs, and while hunting with Venus, a wild boar attacked him. This work represents the devastating moment Venus experienced before the imminent death of her beloved. Agonising, Adonis gives birth to the anemones, a symbol of rebirth that in the Middle Ages were transformed into white roses which, dyed with blood, became the emblem of love. Rodin managed to have the goddess transmit to the spectator her desire to return her beloved to life, reflected in her face full of despair and tenderness. Her hair fused to the rock shows the timelessness the author explored at the beginning of the 1880s. The position of Pena is that of the desolate Venus of this work. Ovid's mythical story tells how the goddess of beauty mourns the death of her companion. In this work, the inert hand of Adonis is subject to the trunk that he will water with his own blood, and that in combination with the nectar, will make the anemone sprout. Other stories tell that his blood watered the white roses, which when dyed became the most precious gift of love. The mythological theme was recurrent in Rodin's production and refers to the myth in which Venus fell in love with Adonis, and after dying under the onslaught of the boar, arrived in the underworld, where Persephone, the wife of Pluto, Lord of the demons, also falls in love with him. Both women request Zeus to resuscitate him, which he grants, but Adonis could not be with both at the same time, since Zeus arranges that during the day he is with Venus and at night with Persephone. The other work with which Rodin completes the Greek myth of Adonis is The Awakening of Adonis.
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