RODIN'S THE KISS

The Kiss, René Françoise Auguste Rodin, 1882
[ French Le Baiser ]

Rodin's The Kiss, completed in 1898, is a huge, life-size sculpture, located at the Musée Rodin in Paris, France. This monumental work made of white marble stands 181.5 cm tall and is 112.5 cm wide. It has smooth surfaces such as the bodies, as well as rough surfaces like the base of the sculpture while the hair of the lovers is made of textured marble. Some parts of this statue retain the light whereas others remain in the shadows. ​​The bodies of the lovers are intertwined and the way in which Rodin sculpted them gives them the appearance of being one entity - two passionate figures fused into one.
This is definitely a striking sculpture, not only due to its size, but also because of the impact it has on the viewer. The Kiss radiates sensuality and eroticism, capturing people's attention at first glance. It allows the viewer to become curious about the story of these two lovers and wonder: Were they real-life lovers? Were they in love and if so, was it forbidden? Or maybe they were not in love but just passionate about one another. However, it certainly seems like the woman is in love, considering the way she is holding him. The male figure’s body language is less expressive and, therefore, it is more difficult to interpret what he might be feeling.
This amazing sculpture depicts the passion of two lovers, however, one cannot help but wonder if this is a forbidden relationship. During the time that this sculpture was created sex was much more of a taboo subject than presently. Therefore, it can be expected that the people represented passionately intertwined in this sculpture were lovers. Moreover, the way they are kissing shows undeniable passion, which in marital relationships very often erodes through time as a result of the mundane nature of everyday life. Prohibition generates desire, and desire has existed since the creation of the world. In terms of nudity, it was much more normalized in 1898 and the society of that time was much more nude than our current society; for them it was something natural that would just take on an erotic character if the context warranted it. Rodin's work expresses the passion between two lovers, but it is also a statement on courtship and the freedom to love.
François Auguste René Rodin - born 12 November 1840 in Paris, France - was a French artist who often is considered to be the founder of modern sculpture. He was born into a poor family, and from an early age got used to leading a simple life without caring about luxuries. Despite the unfavorable economic circumstances of his family, his parents tried to provide him with a bourgeois education and sent him to boarding school in Beauvais. At the age of 14, he returned to Paris where he attended a school of decorative arts, the Petite École, where he learnt drawing and modelling. His teacher, Horac Lecoq de Boisbaudran - known for his unconventional open-air sessions - led him to discover his fascination for the nakedness of the bodies as well as exploring nature as a source of inspiration. Lecoq was immensely committed to his role as an educator. Therefore, when he noticed Rodin's lack of any literature knowledge, he encouraged him to enroll in the Colège de France. The French artist did so and started to study history. Furthermore, he began to read poetry ranging from Homer, Virgic and Dante to Victor Hugo, Musset and Lamartine. Dante’s Divine Comedy’s words and imagery particularly accompanied him throughout his professional career.
Rodin’s The Kiss, embodied the suffering of man by representing Paolo and Francesca’s story: two illicit lovers living in Italy in the 13th century. Francesca da Polenta was the daughter of a lord and a beautiful young woman, which made her desired by various men of her time. However, she was forced to marry Giovanni Malatesta as a result of a political arrangement between both parents. Due to the cunning of his father, Guido I, who sensed that his romantic and beautiful daughter was not going to accept that uncouth man as her husband, Paolo - who was already married - attended the wedding as his brother's proxy. Francesca, who had immediately fallen in love with the handsome Paolo's charms, suffered greatly the following morning after discovering who her husband really was. Evidently, many feelings were involved in this story: Giovanni's sadness in the face of his recent wife's rejection, Paolo's helplessness for having to commit such a deception towards an innocent woman, and Francesca's disappointment when facing her new marriage. As unfortunate as this marriage was, it is of common knowledge that Giovanni did indeed love Francesca. Paolo's feelings for his brother’s wife, instead, are still uncertain. It is true that it could have been love, but it could also have been a challenge to himself that he simply could not resist. Eventually Francesca and Paolo ended up being lovers and thus discovered by Giovanni, who found the door to his wife's room locked and demanded to be admitted. As soon as he entered the room he saw his brother with his wife and managed to hurt him to death. Francesca, to avoid this misfortune, stepped between the sword and Paolo and ended up being fatally stabbed. Realizing what had happened, Giovanni, in an act of desperation, immediately killed Paolo. Despite the gravity of this story, that crime of passion was never condemned, but rather excused. Apparently, at that time, disgrace and infidelity were issues more serious. The poet Dante Alighieri, who was so influential on Rodin, told their story in the form of a poem called Divine Comedy in Canto V of Dante's Inferno. To appease the sin of lust committed by the lovers, Dante changes the story by making it appear that the couple had been influenced by the reading of the adulterous romance of Lancelot and Guinevere. However, feelings such as love and lust are present in the human being from the time of birth and do not require such stimulation.
Rodin’s The Kiss, first titled 'Francesca da Rimini' was completed in 1882 and commissioned by l'Etat - the state. Although its technique is undeniable, the subject of this marvellous sculpture was what made it so special. This piece was in several ways controversial. Via his sculpture, the pensive Rodin attempts to make a statement regarding women, specifically that women are not just a sexualized being but much more than that. However, women must take the posture of such as a result of societal pressure. Rodin, through his artwork, proposes the idea that women have fantasies and desires, which was why his statue was often hidden from any viewers. Furthermore, it is interesting how despite the efforts of the protagonists to kiss, their lips are not really touching, as if in this way Rodin had wanted to represent that both were killed before being able to seal their love.
The story of Francesca and Paolo served as a representative figure of society for Rodin. It is curious that in a sculpture commissioned by the state, although nudity was not at all a problem since french people accepted it without any modesty, the sculptor chose to convey a message behind it: one must be able to love the way he wants to love as well as to have the freedom to love whoever he wants to love. Rodin’s statue is a tribute to unapologetic love and passion. It is a claim to societal pressure. By immortalizing this adultorist kiss he is supporting it and through it he is condemning society. Rodin is making a statement of how the rules of society result in loveless marriages, couples united for political and or economic convenience.
During the nineteenth century it was already known that romantic love was fundamental in order to reveal the ideal self. However, the decision was still not for the woman since her parents decided from when she entered society- which depended mainly on her level of maturity - to who she was going to marry. As soon as the bride’s parents accepted the man’s proposal, he would immediately become her fiancé. The engagement period lasted between three weeks and a couple of months, and was a period of courtship towards the woman, who had to show reserve in the presence of her fiancé. If she showed affection, he would probably doubt her virtuosity. The woman represented virginity and innocence, she was not allowed to be accompanied by a gentleman without the authorization of her mother, nor could she say goodbye to a man by herself, but a servant had to dismiss the suitor of her. At the same time, sex had begun to take a more important role in French literature, thus giving an image of a remarkably cynical and amoral society. Still, ‘modern’ love was reserved for the upper classes of society, and the dedication to eroticism, adultery and illicit love was not for the bourgeoisie. As for infidelity, it could be both tolerated and ridiculed.
Rodin himself declared that for him art needed to say everything it could about both man and the world, he had faith in artists’ power of being able to generalize human experience and transcend his age. Certainly, his statue perpetuated free, uncontracted love and transcended by touching each of the coming generations' emotions. His desire was to assimilate to the way of working the Greeks had: quiet and beautiful. However, he recognized that over time, people had become more troubled and unhealthy. It was this effort to expose human feelings that made him not prone to receive much recognition in his time. Anna Seaton-Smith states in her article ‘Auguste Rodin: Men and Sculptor’ that art critics from his ages resisted Rodin’s artworks' explicit portrayal of passion. Rodin was a profound thinker whose intellectual power can be appreciated in each of his masterpieces. Within his art he represented a fundamental predicament of that century: the soul of those victims of passion. Rodin was a soul, a dreamer with the ability to translate his imagination into clay. It was not only his impeccable technique but the quality of his mind which made him stand out from other artists. His art was never calm.
Despite all his effort and artistic growth at the Petite Ecole, he was never accepted at the Grand Ecole. His works touched different topics which involved being in conflict with the Institute of France. Despite having been sacrificing his national recognition, the French artist never stopped transmitting his thoughts through his art. The attraction of the sculptor's works is universal, since through his art he has been able to express the passions of man, which are also universal. This is also the reason why the coming generations were still attracted by his art. The Kiss is a great example of this: a living creation, a piece understood outside a fine art context and which today, a century later, is still a masterpiece due to its ability to evoke undeniable emotions.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Britannica.com Editors. “Dante Biography”. A&E Television Networks. April 2, 2014
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dante-Alighieri
This site provides poet Dante’s bibliography.

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Carpathios, Neil. “The Kiss’. Poetry Foundation. February 1999, p. 307 http://www.jstor.org/stable/23045489
Poem about The Kiss by Neil Carpathios.

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Fundación Mapfre. “Rodin ------- Giacometti”. Madrid. 6 de Febrero - 10 de Mayo 2020.
This book offers valuable information regarding the French sculptor’s art characteristics as well as conversations he had with different people. Moreover, it offers an approach about the similarities he had with Giacometti.

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Güntürkün, Onur. Human behaviour: Adult persistence of head-turning asymmetry. Nature 421, 711. 13 February 2003.
https://www.nature.com/articles/421711a
This article provides specific information about human kissing characteristics and specifically in The Kiss by Auguste Rodin.
Giustino, Cathleen M. “Rodin in Prague: Modern Art, Cultural Diplomacy, and National Display.” Slavic Review 69, no. 3 (2010): 591–619. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25746274.
This text by Cathleen M. Guisino provides useful information about Rodin’s relationship with the Czechs and the country itself. Furthermore, it also exposes how his art was appreciated by people at that time.

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Haddad, Ann. “Romance and Sweet Dreams: Mid-19th Century Courtship”. Merchant's House Museum. February 13, 2018
https://merchantshouse.org/blog/courtship/
This article refers to courtship rules in France during the 19th century.

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Jardine, Angie. “Paolo and Francesca—The Love Story That Inspired Rodin's 'The Kiss'”. Owlcation. 18th February 2012.
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Famous-Love-Stories-in-History-Paolo-and-Francesca
This article relates the story of Francesca da Polenta and Paolo Malatesta. Furthermore, it also describes how it inspired Dante’s and Rodin’s artworks.

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Lampert, Catherine. “Rodin, Sculpture and Drawings”. Hayward Gallery, South Bank, London SE1. 1 November 1986 - 25 january 1987.
https://books.google.fr/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fky-j_RgN2EC&oi=fnd&pg=PP9&dq=Rodin+The+Kiss&ots=52fBoNisxN&sig=qDrpjMj-qbdnHDf5At42M2Z-jB0&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Rodin%20The%20Kiss&f=false
This book focuses on Rodin’s life and his learning journey. Moreover, it describes the French artist’s drawings and sketchbooks.

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Musée Rodin. “The Kiss”. 2021. https://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/musee/collections/oeuvres/kiss
This is the official website of Musée Rodin which provides specific information about his artwork.

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Rudorff, Raymond. “French Attitudes Towards Sexuality in the late 19th Century”. https://paris10.sitehost.iu.edu/ParisOSS/D11_Sex_and_Gender/d8Rudorff_Sexuality.html
This article refers to French literature during the late 19th century and the turning point in sexuality.

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Seaton - Schmith, Anna. “Auguste Rodin: Men and Sculptor”. The American Magazine of Art. February, 1918. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23936073
This article focuses mainly on Rodin's way of working and the distinctive characteristics of his sculptures. It provides an important point of view due to the fact that the author saw him in herself while working.

2021