Cathedral Clasping Hands Statue by Rodin

Use this Cathedral Clasping Hands Statue by Rodin to add elegance to your home. Or a long time the life of the sculptor Rodin was marked by the mixed reactions his work provoked with the audience. The lack of understanding for Rodin's work was partly due to the original character of his art. He felt little for the strict formats of Romanticism and neither did he want to identify himself with the neutrality of the Impressionist. Rodin's work is characterized by a passion for the human body and he considered himself incapable of any creativity if he did not have a living model in front of him. "In everything I follow nature and I never pretend I am able to control her. My only ambition is to be subservient and faithful to her," he said. Questions about his often controversial, erotic works were answered with the remark "Art is actually nothing more than a manifestation of lust, which only arises from the potency to love."
Rodin's life upheld this belief with a vast succession of lovers having passed his artistic eye. Many affairs were brief, but one of them turned out to be of enormous value to his later work: Camille Claudel. This self-willed, fierce woman, who was very talented sculptor herself, inspired him to create his most famous and admired sculptures. The affair continued for a long time, although Camille had to put up with Rodin's numerous escapades and his loyal companion Rose Beuret. Eventually, the affair ended and Camille suffered the dramatic consequences of this split. She became isolated and confused and in the end she was forced by her family to have herself admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
Towards the end of his life, Rodin could look back upon a successful artistic career. He had given his works to the French government, which had in turn promised to found a museum in his name. Rodin was buried with full honors and the words his father had once spoken turned out to be prophetic: "The day will come that will say about you, what they say about all truly great men: the artist Auguste Rodin is dead, but he lives on for our descendants, for the future."

• Size: 5.75"W x 5.25"D x 10"H
• Weight: 6 lbs
• Material: Bonded Bronze
• Made In: China

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Museum Reproductions Information:

History of Art Reproductions: As far as we know, the history of art reproductions takes us back to Imperial Rome where bronze and marble reproductions of Greek masterpieces served as decoration for lavish Roman Villas and Gardens. The art of casting is thousands of years old: Terracotta’s, Bronzes and ancient glass were cast from molds. Closer to our time in the mid 18th century coinciding with the search for new artistic styles which took inspiration from the roots of classic art (neoclassicism) and the discovery of Herculaneum in 1738 and Pompeii in 1748, archaeological reproductions reappeared all over Europe. As a result of French expeditions to Egypt during the nineteenth century, a casting facility was set up next to the Louvre Museum where many important archaeological pieces from ancient Egypt were reproduced. Following the example of the Louvre, other leading European museums began to reproduce some of the masterpieces in their collections thus initiating a trend that continues until today.

Art Reproduction Craftsmanship: For the making of art reproductions, masterpieces have been chosen from the best museums all over the world, The Louvre, The British Museum, The National Museum of Athens, The Egyptian Museum Cairo, The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. We only use materials and techniques that can achieve the best quality in reproducing original works of art to obtain very fine pieces, up to the last detail. Our sculptures are cast in a variety of mediums: Bonded Stone, Polyresins, and Bronze. The finish of each reproduction, is always hand-made and showing craftsmanship and historical sense, is the work of an artisan. It is the task to present to the people of today the legacy of those ancient civilizations with all the beauty and mystery of our ancestors again in front of our eyes and at the reach of our hands. There is several steps that must be taken before a museum reproduction sculpture can be made. Most of our items are original artworks created by our sculptors, carved out of clay, stone, or wood. Once the original is carved, a mold is made, usually out of silicon. Crushed stone in a liquid resin medium is poured into a silicon mold where it solidifies into a hard stone that reproduces all the detail and texture of the original. All the finishes are done by hand. Many finishes include color detailing, a labor intensive process where colors are applied with small brushes by our skilled artisans.