by Adam Petty

Staff Writer

Everyone knows what Auguste Rodin did, even if they don't know who he was. His best-known sculpture, ``The Thinker,'' adorns postcards and screensavers the world over. In the ranks of the world's most recognizable works of art, it's right up there with the ``Mona Lisa'' and Michelangelo's ``David.''

What's not quite as well-known, however, is the story behind the sculpture. It was originally made to be included in a huge sculpture called ``The Gates of Hell,'' which Rodin worked on for more than twenty years. It was never properly finished until after his death, and now stands at the Rodin Museum in Paris. But Rodin also made individual sculptures of figures from ``The Gates'' to be exhibited on their own. A collection of some of these sculptures has been making the rounds of American museums, and is now at the Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids. It is the only venue in the Midwest where this exhibit will be displayed.

At one time, it seemed like ``The Gates of Hell'' would only be displayed in this piecemeal fashion. In 1880, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris commissioned Rodin to make a doorway for its opening. It was to be based on Dante's ``Divine Comedy.'' Rodin grabbed it: he loved Dante, and a doorway was the most prestigious commission a sculptor could receive. As he began to do preliminary sketches for it, he decided to focus solely on the ``Inferno,'' finding damnation to be the best source of artistic inspiration.

It was expected that he would display his work at the Universal Exposition of 1889, but he hadn't finished it by then and the construction plans for the museum fell through soon afterwards. He worked on it only intermittently, having many other commissions to fulfill. It wasn't until 1900 that Rodin finally displayed his work to the public, and even then it was only a rough plaster model. After that, it languished in a dusty university basement. Rodin died in 1917, having never completed his most monumental work.

In 1937 however, a team of artists and craftsmen finished the work of bronzing the entire sculpture. With ``The Gates'' completed, audiences could see the coherent whole that Rodin had envisioned, the whole that that had only been hinted at by the individual figures scattered around the world.

The Frederik Meijer Gardens exhibit, with its collection of figures, tries to give a sense of this dramatic consistency, and does a good job. For example, the popular understanding of ``The Thinker'' is that it is a tribute to the intellect. This isn't false, but it is rather vague. In the exhibit, we learn that Rodin also referred to this as ``The Poet,'' and that it is a representation of Dante himself, surveying the realm of the damned and brooding over their fate.

A few figures after ``The Thinker'' is ``Ugolino and his Sons.'' Ugolino was a corrupt leader of Dante's time who was imprisoned in a high tower along with his sons. They were given no food, and had to resort to cannibalism. The statue shows Ugolino on all fours like an animal, crouching over the dead body of one of his sons. His other sons clamber around him, clinging to his legs, his torso, on all their faces a look of horror.

Throughout the exhibit--indeed, throughout Rodin's whole career--certain basic figures appear in different variations. In ``The Gates of Hell'' display in the Rodin Museum, two large figures, Adam and Eve, stand to the right and left of it, respectively. (Unfortunately, this exhibit does not have the Adam figure.) Rodin placed them there as a reminder of original sin. He also used the basic Adam figure elsewhere in this work, as in ``The Three Shades.''

In this statue, the three anonymous figures stand close together, all in the same pose. Their heads are bent down, in despair, and their left arms point down in front of them. In the full-size sculpture of ``The Gates,'' these figures stand at the top-center, embodiments of hell's motto according to Dante: ``Abandon all hope ye who enter here.''

The exhibit also has a figure of the magnificent ``Eve'' that stands to the side of ``The Gates'' in Paris. This is actually part of the Garden's permanent collection, but it is a pleasure to see the figure in its rightful context.

``Eve'' stands more than six feet tall, the largest piece in the exhibit. She is depicted during her expulsion from Eden, her arms covering her face as she turns away from God's wrath. In a show that is not short on depictions of agony and despair, Eve's anguish is perhaps the most wrenching because she knows best what it is she's lost through disobedience.

However, ``Eve'' also illustrates the only real drawback of the show, albeit a minor one: lighting. Her face is turned to the gallery wall and is almost completely obscured in shadow. An extra track light there, and in a few other places, could fix this problem.

The music playing in the gallery--pleasant, subdued instrumental pieces--at first didn't seem to go along with the artwork. But on a second consideration, this was probably a shrewd decision on the manager's part, as music more appropriate to the subject matter could have become overwhelming.

Nevertheless, Rodin's Obsession: The Gates of Hell is probably the best chance you'll have in Grand Rapids to see his work in detail. So if you're a fan of Rodin, Dante, or simply great art, be sure to check it out. The exhibit will be here until March 3.