Titan IV

The present model is a marble rendition of one of the four Titans executed for the famous Vase by Auguste Rodin.

The Vase of the Titans dates to the period when Rodin was in the employment of the eminent romantic sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse. At this time, Carrier employed a large studio to help him execute numerous public and private commissions. The sculptor designed the vase himself before giving the project over to Rodin to execute.

The Titan’s role within the composition of the Vase is reminiscent of ancient Greek caryatids, stone-carved figures (usually female) which functioned as columns and supports to buildings. If singled out of the composition, however, the contorted positions of the figures on the Vase are immediately relatable to the figurative experience of Michelangelo in sixteenth-century Italy.

In fact, the complicated contrapposto and strong introverted gestures typical of Rodin’s hand were heavily influenced by Michelangelo’s sculpture. Between 1875 and 1876, the young sculptor had visited Italy and, in a letter to his long-term partner Rose Beuret, he stated that during the visit he had managed to learn ‘a few of the secrets of the great magician Michelangelo.’

The immediate visual strength of these marble pieces clearly conveys the illustrious artistic influence to which Rodin was subject as well as his modernist modelling technique.