Description
NARRATOR: A soft cloak enfolds the mythical Psyche in this marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin. It’s night, and she’s trying to steal a look at her sleeping lover, Cupid, who only visits her in darkness. Rodin posed Psyche almost like a dancer, with her legs in a turned-out, ballet-like pose and her body bending from inside the almost translucent folds of the cloak. Rodin’s mastery of his material is evident everywhere in this virtuoso work.
MARIETTA CAMBARERI: There is a very beautiful passage in the hair which merges into the cloak, and you have to look quite closely to see the differences in texture between fabric and hair.
NARRATOR: Marietta Cambareri, assistant curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture:
MARIETTA CAMBARERI: The thing that I find most moving about this sculpture is the way Rodin is able to manipulate the marble medium and leave his work very visible to the viewer…For example, the base is very rough…and then areas like the area of the cloak where you can still see the marks of the claw chisel. And then the areas of the flesh where Rodin has polished it up to a very…smooth texture, so that…while Rodin has told the story, he’s also revealed the means, and that is, the carving of the marble itself.
Details
- Work Date:
- 1899
- Location:
- Sidney and Esther Rabb Gallery (Gallery 255)
- Dimensions:
- 73.66 x 68.58 x 38.1 cm. (29 x 27 x 15 in.)
- Medium:
- Stone; Marble
- Credit Line:
- Anonymous gift in memory of Ward Thoron (1867-1938) and Louisa Chapin Hooper Thoron (1874-1975)