Dante thumbnail 1
Dante thumbnail 2
+6
images
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Sculpture, Room 111, The Gilbert Bayes Gallery

Dante

Mask
ca. 1908 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Auguste Rodin’s career maps the progress of 19th-century art, from the Romantic revolt against Neo-classicism, to the radical enquiry that paved the way for the Modernist developments of the 20th century. The V&A’s collection of works by Rodin is unique in that they were given by the artist, to represent his art in Britain and commemorate British soldiers fighting in France in November 1914. In 1880 Rodin gained his first state commission, the bronze Gates of Hell for a proposed museum of decorative arts in Paris. He based them initially on Dante’s poem Inferno, and many of his later compositions stem from this project. This small head is actually a portrait of a wealthy American, John Wesley de Kay.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleDante (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Terracotta
Brief description
Mask, Dante, terracotta, by Auguste Rodin, France (Paris), ca. 1908
Dimensions
  • Weight: 3.68kg
  • Height: 19cm (Note: Just the head (excluding the wooden block))
  • Height: 19cm
Credit line
Given to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Rodin in 1914
Subject depicted
Summary
Auguste Rodin’s career maps the progress of 19th-century art, from the Romantic revolt against Neo-classicism, to the radical enquiry that paved the way for the Modernist developments of the 20th century. The V&A’s collection of works by Rodin is unique in that they were given by the artist, to represent his art in Britain and commemorate British soldiers fighting in France in November 1914. In 1880 Rodin gained his first state commission, the bronze Gates of Hell for a proposed museum of decorative arts in Paris. He based them initially on Dante’s poem Inferno, and many of his later compositions stem from this project. This small head is actually a portrait of a wealthy American, John Wesley de Kay.
Bibliographic references
  • Hawkins, Jennifer, Rodin Sculptures, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1975, pp. 26 -27, ill. 25
  • Newton, Joy. Rodin is a British Institution. Burlington Magazine. CXXXVI, Dec. 1994.
  • Alley, Ronald. Tate Gallery Catalogue: Foreign Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture. London, 1595. p. 223. pl. 48f.
  • Mitchell, Claudine. The Gift to the British Nation: Rodin at the V&A. In: Mitchell, Claudine. ed.Rodin: The Zola of Sculpture. Henry Moore Institute, 2003. pp. 183-200.
  • Lampert, Catherine, Rodin, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 2006
Collection
Accession number
A.50-1914

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Record createdApril 18, 2005
Record URL
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