The Age of Bronze

The final artwork on our tour is The Age of Bronze, a sculpture by one of the world's most famous sculptors - Rodin.

As we've seen, the 19th century was a period of incredible artistic invention. This applied to painting as well as sculpture.

Like many avant-garde artists of his time, Rodin was frustrated by the idea of exclusively representing idealised subjects.

He wanted to represent what was true and authentic.

Where sculptors in the past had idealised the human body, depicting gods, historical figures, and symbols, Rodin wanted to portray humans as they were, imperfections and all.

The title "Age of Bronze" refers to the third age of humanity as described by the Greek poet Hesiod.

By choosing this name, Rodin aimed to signal the emergence of a new age in the history of sculpture.

Fun fact : Rodin did such a great job of representing the male body that critics accused him of casting it from a real model - the worse criticism for a sculptor!

He had to spend years defending the authenticity of his work.

So his next sculpture was much larger than life... to avoid further controversy!