Rodin and Michelangelo: A Study in Artistic Inspiration

242 Pages·2016·14.94 MB·English

by  Fergonzi F.

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Rodin and Michelangelo

Rodin
and
Michelangelo
A
Study in Artistic Inspiration
Flavio Fergonzi
Maria Mimita Lamberti
Vina Ragionieri
Christopher Riopelle
Philadelphia Museum of Art
This book is published on the Casa Buonarroti, Florence
occasion ofthe exhibition June 11-September 30, 1996
Rodin andMichelangelo: Philadelphia Museum of Art
A
Study in ArtisticInspiration March 27-June22, 1997
The exhibition was conceived
by Giovanni Agosti and Pina
Ragionieri and organized by
Maria Mimita Lamberti and
Christopher Riopelle.
The exhibition is made Originally published as © Edizioni Charta, Milan
possible in Philadelphia by Michelangelo nell'Ottocento: and Casa Buonarroti, Florence
the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Rodin e Michelangelo ©
English translation 1997
Foundation and by Schnader
English-language edition Philadelphia Museum of Art
&
Harrison Segal Lewis.
produced by the Department
Works by Umberto Boccioni,
of Publications and Graphics
Additional support has been Emile-Antoine Bourdelle,
Philadelphia Museum of Art ©
provided by The Pew andJackson Pollock ARS,
Charitable Trusts and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway New York / ADAGP, Paris
at Twenty-sixth Street
Robert Montgomery Scott No
P.O. Box 7646 All rights reserved. part of
Endowment for Exhibitions, Philadelphia, PA 19101-7646 this book may be reproduced in
and by an indemnity from the
any form by any electronic
Federal Council on the Arts
Editors or mechanical means, including
and the Humanities. US
George H. Marcus photocopying, recording, or
Airways is the official airline Curtis R. Scott information storage and retrieval,
NBC
for the exhibition. 10 is without prior permission, in
Translators
the media sponsor.
writing, from the Philadelphia
Charles Doria
Museum of Art.
Anthony Shugaar
Designer Printed and bound in Italy
Gabriele Nason
Edizioni Charta, Milan Library of Congress
Editorial Coordinator Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Emanuela Belloni may be found on p. 236
Edizioni Charta, Milan
Production Manager Distributed in the United States
Sandra M. Klimt and Canada by the Philadelphia
Colorseparationsandprinting Museum of Art
Amilcare Pizzi Arti Grafiche ISBN 0-87633-110-X (cloth)
Milan ISBN 0-87633-109-6 (paper)
Distributed elsewhere by
Edizioni Charta
ISBN 88-8158-072-1 (paper)
Contents
8 Foreword
15 The Casa Buonarroti in Florence
Pina Ragionieri
27 The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia
Christopher Riopelle
35 Rodin Confronts Michelangelo
Christopher Riopelle
51 The Discovery of Michelangelo: Some
Thoughts on Rodin's Week in Florence
and Its Consequences
Flavio Fergonzi
A
69 Rodin and Michelangelo: Turning
Point in Modern Sculpture
Maria Mimita Lamberti
83 Catalogue of the Exhibition
Christopher Riopelle (Rodin)
Flavio Fergonzi (Michelangelo)
223 Bibliographical Abbreviations
Foreword
The histOiy oi art has been created in good part by one great
artist's fascination, even obsession, with the work of another.
Artistic inspiration leaps across the centuries and across
national boundaries, imitation being not only the sincerest
form of flattery but also the wcllspring ot creative energy.
( )ne has only to think ot ( Cezanne's admiration tor Poussin,
Picasso's for Velasquez, or the passion ot Ingres tor the work
ot Raphael to understand that such inspiration can be a major
force without in any way diminishing the stature ot the later
artist. Ilie sixteenth-century Florentine genius Michelangelo
Buonarroti 147^-1 5M) was a figure of such overwhelming
(
importance that in his own time his influence extended
broadly across the fields ot painting, sculpture, and architecture.
More than three centuries later his impact could still be telt,
perhaps nowhere more deeply than in the art ot the young
French sculptor Auguste Rodin ( 1 S-40—1S>17 ), who made a
fateful journey to Italy at the age ot thirty-six.
For Rodin, the year 1876 was an annus mirabilis, marked by
his visit to Florence and his firsthand encounter with the
Medici Chapel and other masterworks ot his Renaissance
hero. This exhibition is the first to suggest the full impact of
Michelangelo's art upon the career ot Rodin, tor whom this
creative encounter came at a crucial juncture. Thanks to the
scholarship of the exhibition organizers, we now know that
Michelangelo's powerful drawing of the Virgin and Child, here
shown in Philadelphia for the first time, was surely among the
first works ofart to greet Rodin's gaze when the young
sculptor visited the Casa Buonarroti, the museum created in
the family palazzo in Florence that had played such an
important public role the previous year, during the celebrations
commemorating the four hundredth anniversary of
Michelangelo's birth. Among the many happy connections
celebrated by this international exhibition project are the
sister-city relationship between Florence and Philadelphia and
S