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Rodin
produced several important sculptures between
about 1858 and 1875, including notably The Man
With The Broken Nose. He initially gained recognition
in 1877, however, when his male nude figure
The Age of Bronze was exhibited at the Salon.
This work aroused controversy because of its
extreme realism and provoked accusations that
Rodin had made plaster casts from living models.
The exhibition in 1880 of his nude statue, St.
John the Baptist, which stressed the human qualities
of his subject, increased Rodin's reputation.
In the same year he began work on The Gates
of Hell, a sculptured bronze door for the Musée
des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
The door represented chiefly scenes from The
Inferno, the first section of Dante's Divine
Comedy. Although Rodin did not complete The
Gates of Hell, he created models, or studies,
of many of its component sculptures, all of
which were acclaimed as independent achievements.
Among these works are The Kiss, Ugolino, The
Thinker, Adam, and Eve. In 1886 he completed
The Burghers of Calais. This sculpture is a
monumental bronze group in which the historical
figures are represented with great psychological
differentiation.
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