Rodin Sculpture Garden

Containing the largest public concentration of Rodin’s bronze sculptures in the world is something many Stanford students do not appreciate, or yet, even are aware of. Walking in front of the quad, one can catch a taste of the amazing collection of Auguste Rodin’s work here at Stanford. I had seen these works before, passing in front of the quad or walking to the oval. This aspect is always included in campus tours and I can often see a clump of tourists from feet away taking pictures. Ordinarily, I saw these sculptures as a mere decoration, and even a piece of art that was insignificant and belittled by the awe-inspiring beauty of Memorial Church’s façade framed by the quad’s front arches. I decided to look deeper and truly analyze Rodin’s unique sculptures that are displayed more as an exhibit outside of the Cantor Art Museum.

The first two sculptures I looked at were very similar, which was further demonstrated by their titles, "Fallen Caryatid with Urn" and "Fallen Caryatid with Stone." There were many things that caught my attention with these pieces—the peaceful, pensive look on the woman’s face, the folds of the cloth covering the lower half of her body, and the portrayal of struggle displayed by the body almost collapsing under this seemingly heavy object. When looking at these aspects, I began to notice that the face was nondescript and the hair simple, while the tensing of the muscles and angles of the body seemed to pop out at me. When getting home, I actually looked up the word “caryatid” as I didn’t know what it meant and discovered it is a term used to describe a stone carving of a female figure that is used as a pillar to support the entablature of a Greek building. This definition represented the basis for what I felt Rodin’s worked represented—support, strength, balance.

As I walked through the garden, I was able to see these ideals in every work. "Orpheus" also had an object with which his body was upholding. The body was able to support this by balance, with the left hip down and left foot forward, balanced with the right arm reaching up away from the body. This sort of balance for strength to hold these objects I could also see in works without external objects, but that displayed balance in the positioning of the body. Rodin’s "Claude Lorrain" is a very different sculpture, very stoic and almost memorial-like, yet showed equality and balance through the body. The man’s left leg and and right arm are bent, with his right leg and head turned to the left. There is an odd symmetry here that leads to a pleasing and balanced sculpture in which pleasure comes from seeing these opposite sides of the body mirroring each other. My classmate who viewed the sculptures with me described the bodies as “crossed,” and without a picture, this idea is hard to describe, but one which I feel is a good explanation of the what I saw in each sculpture. The legs and arms are twisted and crossed in ways that support each other. The body is supple and almost contorted, but in this I see stability and equality across the body. For example, in "Meditation," the crossed left leg comes across the body as the figure’s right hip is out and up. Both arms are crossed, yet one is high with the elbow in the air, and one is low with the elbow bent and pointing down.

Rodin’s sculpted bodies are pleasing, and what I think makes their position and display so appealing is the equality reached by opposition, like having a sculpture with one bent leg and one straight leg, which can be seen in practically each sculpture. Rodin’s famous "Three Shades" shows this one bent leg in three men, furthering the balance across the body with all of them reaching one arm forward and pulling the opposite bent arm back. The heads are turned in the opposite way each body is turned. One can even look more closely and notice the fingers of the sculptures. Their hands are all pointing with their index finger in the outstretched arm; however, the opposite hand has the index finger in and touching the thumb. Even Rodin’s sculpture "Prayer," which has no appendages to display this “crossing of the body,” still has an angle in the body with an arched back and bent knees.

While the first sculptures I looked at required the body’s position to have strength and stability as there was an external object involved, the later sculptures I saw displayed this same strength and stability in the body through a balance across the body achieved by opposing bends and mirroring contortions.