Auguste Rodin

It was true that Rodin was inclined towards the artistic from an early age. Born in 1840 (in Paris) he entered a Parisian school for the decorative arts called the Petite Ecole when he was fourteen. But his career as a artist seemed to be doomed to be unsuccessful when he was rejected three times by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the most important artistic academy in the country at the time. By the time he was 18, he had turned to making decorative stonework to earn a living. He pursued this craft until he was 22, when the death of his sister Marie struck him so deeply that he decided to renounce the world and its sorrows and enter a sacred order.

The head of the order that he joined recognized his talent, and encouraged him to pursue it, thereby discouraging Rodin from turning away from the world altogether. And when he was 24, Rodin met Rose Beuret, a seamstress who would become both his life's companion and his frequent model. T

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ed the sculpture of Michelangelo, and the figure's pose brings to mind particularly Michelangelo's Dying Slave (http://www.chrysler.org/wom/wom1100.html). Although the poses are similar, the overall mood of the two works is very different - Rodin's piece suggests a figure who is both more resolute and more hopeful. But both works - in addition to their compositional and formal similarity - suggest the same vulnerability. One of the reasons that Michelangelo was celebrated as the epitome of a Renaissance artist was (in addition to the sheer degree of his talent, of course) was that his works embodied the humanistic spirit of the Renaissance. Italy during the Renaissance was a country beginning to revel in the philosophy of humanism. After centuries of belief in the inherent wickedness of human beings, Italian and especially Florentine writers, artists, and social leaders were beginning to argue for the essential goodness of their fellow humans - at least if those fellow humans were properly educated. Humanist scholars, writers, and artists such as Petrarch, Giotto and Dante were arguing that each individual could improve himself or herself (although they perhaps would in fact have meant only "himself") through a careful study of
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Dying Slave, Petite Ecole, Paris Salon, Auguste Rodin, Rodin Shades, Rodin Michelangelo, Italy Renaissance, Age Bronze, Sistine Chapel, Henry Moore, dying slave, paris salon, renaissance artist, age bronze, human form, writers artists, fellow humans, critics believed,
Approximate Word count = 1263
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)