Conversations in Corporeality

A female nude is seated on a tall jar missing its handles. She holds one hand to her forehead. With the other hand, she holds an object between her knees.

Auguste Rodin. Assemblage: Female nude with a Slavic woman’s head seated on an Egyptian lug-handled vase. Plaster (figure), 1895–1910; Travertine (vase), 3500–2900 BCE (Predynastic Period). Egypt; Findspot unknown (vase). Donation Rodin 1916. Musée Rodin, S.00681

The Egyptian Body

The ancient Egyptians conceived of the human body as an assembled being. Composed of anatomical parts—bones, limbs, skin, hair, organs, among others— it also had immaterial components—such as the ren (name), the shwt (shadow), the ka (the life force), and the ba (the spiritual personality that traveled between the lands of the living and dead). These parts of a person were essential not only to their existence, but also key components of their representation in art. Human depictions in statuary, reliefs, steles, and wall paintings, along with accompanying hieroglyphic texts, materialized these aspects of a person in their totality. They present enduring images of the deceased that weathered the test of time, providing a means for their continued existence in the land of the dead and in the memory of the living.

The fragment of a relief sculpture depicting a male and a female in profile accompanied by hieroglyphic script.
The fragment of a relief sculpture depicting a seated nude male in profile. Hieroglyphic script appears to the right and below.
A framed painting of two figures facing each other. The figure at the left has light skin, while the one at the right, much larger, has dark skin

Statues were believed to be living images, and played a role in a special ceremony called “The Opening of the Mouth,” in which the statue’s body was animated so that it could interact with the world around it. They were traditionally oriented frontally, allowing the statues to interact with viewers and to receive and consume their offerings of food, drink, incense, light, and air—the needs typical of a living person. Statues of the elite were exclusively funerary in nature and placed in the tomb chapels of the deceased, where they were encountered as honored ancestors. Royal statues—often monumental in size—appeared in more varied contexts such as mortuary temples and state temples, and as monuments in cities and within the natural landscape, where they presented the divine power of the king.

A head, with eyes closed, wearing a pharaoh’s headcloth.

Royal statue head. 380–330 BCE (Late Period–Ptolemaic Period). Limestone. Egypt; Findspot unknown. Musée Rodin: Co.01121.

A headless figure with lines incised to indicate drapery covering the left arm, part of the torso, and both legs. The right arm is at the figure’s side while the left is slightly bent and placed against the torso. The figure stands with the left foot slightly ahead of the right on a rectangular block. Both the figure and block are carved from a single piece of stone.

Striding statue of a priest. 332 BCE–640 CE (Ptolemaic Period–Roman Period). Gray granite. Egypt; Findspot unknown. Donation Rodin 1916. Musée Rodin: CO.01421. Checklist no. 58.

Statues of gods and their sacred animals were also conceived as living entities. Small statuettes made of precious metals such as gold and silver were the most sacred of divine images, and materialized the belief that the gods’ skin was made of gold and their bones of silver. These statues were considered living beings and were clothed, washed, and provided with sweet scents and fine food. Few of these have now survived, as the precious metals were subsequently looted and melted down for reuse. All three-dimensional images of gods were treated with great reverence, although they were seldom seen outside their homes in temples, which were not accessible for most people. The exception was during festivals, when the god’s shrines were paraded through the streets, allowing people to approach, to give offerings, and to ask oracular questions.

A standing male is enclosed within an oblong niche incised with hieroglyphic script.
A male wearing a flat cap and a loincloth stands with the left foot slightly ahead of the right. He has a braided beard and holds an ankh emblem in his left hand and a scimitar across his chest.
A standing male with a braided beard wears a tall oblong headdress with feathers. His figure is wrapped in a shroud with his arms crossed over his chest, his hands clasping a crook and flail. The bottom part of his torso is missing.

Small statuettes made of bronze or copper alloys, many examples of which can be seen in the exhibition, are examples of such votive gifts, given as acts of devotion by worshipers in connection with prayers or requests for personal needs. When such gifts became too numerous to store in the temple, they were reverently wrapped in linen and buried in the temple grounds, mirroring the cycle of life and following Egyptian funerary practices.

A headless standing bird with long legs is mounted on an oblong wooden block.

Votive statuette of Thoth as an ibis. 664–332 BCE (Late Period). Copper alloy. Egypt; Findspot unknown. Donation Rodin 1916. Musée Rodin: CO.00211. Checklist no. 1.

An Egyptian Rodin

It was in the twilight of his career that ancient Egyptian art had the most profound impact on Rodin’s work. The pursuit of truth and authenticity was paramount to him and stood as the spiritual ethos behind all of his work. In Egypt, he saw the purest expression of nature and truth, through the simplified forms, postures, and shapes of its artistic traditions. He expressed this many times in his writings and public statements, often highlighting how the art of antiquity was the pinnacle of human representation.

“In the present epoch there is a ceaseless desire for novelty. That is a great fault. The works which I prefer are those of the Egyptians. They are 4,000 years old. They are, nevertheless, newer and younger than those which we produce. Things must be true in order to succeed. Truth eternal, therefore, does not imply any need of novelty.”
—Auguste Rodin, The New York Times, January 1, 1911.

A drawing of a female, cropped at the knees, with light skin and dark hair.

Auguste Rodin. Demande et Défend / Égyptien. ca. 1900. Graphite pencil and watercolor on vellum; annotated by Rodin: “demande et défend égyptien [demand and defend / Egyptian].” Musée Rodin: D.05062

: A drawing of a standing female, with light skin and dark hair. She holds both arms high with elbows bent and hands at her breasts.

Auguste Rodin. Cléopâtre. After November 1903. Graphite pencil, watercolor, and black ink wash on watermarked paper; annotated by Rodin on verso: “egypte [Egypt]” and “Cléopâtre [Cleopatra].” Musée Rodin: D.05000.

Rodin’s fascination with Egyptian art can be seen in many of his later works. Terms such as Egypt, pyramid, sphinx, and Cleopatra appear as labels on a number of his drawings and watercolors, transforming the figures into evocations of Egypt through the colors of desert landscapes and the poses of Egyptian colossi. The medium of paper also provided material means to flatten the body, echoing the composite forms of two-dimensional figures found on Egyptian stele, reliefs, and wall paintings. Rodin worked Egypt into his sculpture, from sphinxlike figures to grand colossal forms. These connections were sometimes explicit, through inscriptions, such as on the plaster figure above labeled Sphinx. Works such as The Succubus also drew directly on the monstrous forms of sphinxes and the graceful forms of Egyptian cat bronzes, exhibiting clear references to Egypt through iconography, form, and posture.

A female nude with long hair crouches to hold a smaller female nude with knees bent.

Auguste Rodin. Assemblage: Two female nudes. ca. 1905–17. Plaster; annotated by Rodin on the front: “Sphinx.” Musée Rodin: S.02612.

A crouching female nude with long hair and open mouth.

Auguste Rodin. Le Succube (The Succubus). 1888. Bronze. Musée Rodin: S.00520. Checklist no. 56.

In other cases, Rodin’s Egyptian inspirations were more subtle. He was particularly intrigued by the fragmentary nature of the body in Egyptian sculpture and reliefs: a striding pair of legs, a headless torso, a lone head. These were analogous to his own process of deconstructing the human body, which subsequently took on identities of its own. His obsessively created plaster abattis—transposable body parts such as heads, hands, feet, and legs made from molds—which were used to assemble and disassemble fragments of the body in new configurations that mirrored those from antiquity. Torso of a Young Woman with Arched Back finds kinship with many of the incomplete Egyptian torsos in his collection and illustrates Rodin’s technique of fragmentation and ruination. Her weathered, vestigial hands at the waist allude to her limbless torso to once being whole.

A headless female torso with arms abbreviated slightly below the shoulders.

Auguste Rodin. Torse de Jeune Femme Cambré (Torso of a Young Woman with Arched Back) (large model). 1909. Plaster. Donation Rodin 1916. Musée Rodin, S.00607. Checklist no. 47.

A fragment depicting a headless, armless male torso with well-defined chest muscles. He wears a loincloth.

Standing statue of King Nectanebo I. 380–365 BCE (Late Period). Quartzite. Egypt; Findspot unknown. Donation Rodin 1916. Musée Rodin: CO.01420. Checklist no. 46.

Rodin also grafted Egyptian objects directly into his sculpture, particularly in his “assemblages,” for which the sculptor would select an ancient pot or stone vessel from his collection and incorporate a small plaster figure onto it. These vital and whimsical characters sit on, emerge from, peek out of, and hide in their ancient counterparts. Rodin sometimes even removed parts of the vessel to allow his figure to better interact with it or made the figures part of the vessel, such as a lid or handles. These works reveal how Rodin saw the artifacts in his collection as additional material components in his sculpture.

The headless torso of a woman emerges from a tall narrow jar. Her arms are bent and placed along the rim of the jar.

Auguste Rodin. Assemblage: Headless female nude, crossed arms, in an Egyptian jar. Plaster (figure), 1895–1910. Terracotta (vessel): 664–332 BCE (Late Period). Findspot unknown. Musée Rodin: S.03856.

Two partial figures, both nude, are affixed to the sides of round jar with a narrow foot and wide mouth. The heads and fragmentary arms of the figures are upraised.

Auguste Rodin. Assemblage: Despairing Youth and Child of Ugolino around a vase. ca. 1895. Plaster and pottery. Musée Rodin: S.03614.

If Rodin was pleased with an overall assemblage, he sometimes experimented further, replicating the component parts in plaster and reassembling them. This transformed the assemblage into a single mat-white body whose mold marks were intentionally left visible. His process of tinkering can be seen in the assemblage Small Spring, where Rodin combined a marble Egyptian cosmetic container with a plaster figure that springs from its mouth like a piece from a miniature fountain. From there, he used the molds to replicate the pieces and assemble them into new mat-white bodies. In this way, Rodin transfigured the Egyptian vessel into one of his own transposable abattis parts, bridging the divide—and blurring the distinction—between past and present.

A female nude appears to emerge from a short, wide jar. Her knees are bent, and her arms are missing.

Auguste Rodin. La Petite Source (Small Spring); Assemblage: Female nude without arms kneeling on a cosmetic vessel. Plaster (figure), 1895–1910. Possibly marble (vessel), 3100–2649 BCE. Donation Rodin 1916. Musée Rodin: S.03622. Checklist no. 38.

ISAW Logo