The Gates of Hell
by Auguste Rodin, 1917
Artwork Details
Details
- Year
- 1917
- Medium
- Bronze
- Size
- 600 cm × 400 cm × 100 cm
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Auguste Rodin worked on this massive bronze portal for 37 years, never seeing it cast in his lifetime. Inspired by Dante's Inferno, the doors swarm with over 200 tortured figures writhing in damnation. The Thinker sits at the top, surveying the suffering below.
Commissioned as a doorway for a planned museum of decorative arts that was never built, the Gates became a laboratory for Rodin's ideas. Many standalone sculptures, including The Thinker, The Kiss, and The Three Shades, originated here. The chaotic composition captures human passion and despair in every contorted form.
Bronze casts exist at the Musée Rodin in Paris, the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, and several other locations.
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About The Gates of Hell
Bronze casts stand at the Musée Rodin in Paris, the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, and other museums. Rodin never saw it cast.
Rodin worked on it for 37 years (1880-1917) until his death. It was cast posthumously from his plaster model.
The Thinker, The Kiss, The Three Shades, and many other Rodin sculptures originated as figures in this massive composition.
The doors measure 6 meters tall by 4 meters wide (about 20 × 13 feet). Over 200 figures populate the surface.
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