Adonis Awakens
Adonis Awakens | |
---|---|
Artist | Auguste Rodin |
Year | 1889 |
Medium | White marble |
Location | Museo Soumaya, Mexico City |
Adonis Awakens (in French Le réveil d’Adonis, literally The Awakening of Adonis) is an 1889 sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin. Based on the account of Adonis in Book 10 of Ovid's Metamorphoses, it is signed “A RODIN” on the edge of the base. It is now in the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City.[1]
Background
Venus found Adonis as a baby and took him to the underworld to be fostered by Persephone and to protect him from the wrath of Apollo and Artemis. Once he had grown up she returned to collect him and - after being accidentally wounded by one of her son Cupid's arrows - fell in love with him. Persephone had also fallen in love with him and so Jupiter decreed that he should spend one third of each year with Venus, one third with Persephone and the remaining third with whomever he chose - Adonis opted for Venus, but was later gored to death by a wild boar.
Description
The work shows a disconsolate Venus leaning over the sleeping body of Adonis, gored to death by Apollo in the form of a wild boar and symbolising Spring asleep in the arms of winter. Her hair drapes over and merges with the face of Persephone, asleep on Adonis' chest.[1] Adonis sleeps in the hollow of a tree trunk, with Venus' knees on the earth. The phallus also evokes the start of the life-cycle, since when Adonis is dead autumn begins and cold prevents the growth of crops.[1] They are surrounded by nymphs.[2] The work exemplifies Rodin's mature style, particularly in the contrast between highly finished and unfinished areas.[2]
See also
References
- ^ a b c (in Spanish) Seis siglos de arte. Cien grandes maestros. Fundación Carso. 2005. ISBN 9687794305.
- ^ a b (in Spanish) Tancock, John L. (1997). Rodin en México. Colección de escultura europea de los siglos XIX y XX. México: Museo Soumaya. ISBN 9687794038.
External links
Media related to Adonis Awakens by Auguste Rodin at Wikimedia Commons
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- Man with the Broken Nose (1863)
- Alsatian Orphan (1871)
- Suzon (1872–73)
- The Age of Bronze (1876)
- La Defense (1879)
- The Maiden Kissed by the Ghost (1880)
- The Shade (1880)
- The Gates of Hell (1880/1917)
- The Thinker (1880, locations)
- Adam (1880–81)
- Eve (1881)
- Crouching Woman (1880–1882)
- Saint John the Baptist (1880/1907)
- Ugolino and His Sons (1881)
- The Kiss (1882)
- I Am Beautiful (1882)
- The Falling Man (1882)
- Jules Dalou (1883)
- Bust of Maurice Haquette (1883)
- Bust of Victor Hugo (1883)
- Eternal Springtime (1884)
- Torso of Adele (c. 1884)
- The Burghers of Calais (1884–1889)
- Head of Camille Claudel (1884/1911)
- The Prodigal Son (1885)
- Mask of a Weeping Woman (1885)
- The Martyr (1885)
- Psyche Looking at Love (1885)
- Eustache de Saint Pierre (1885–86)
- Jean d'Aire (1885–86)
- Jean de Fiennes (1885–86)
- Avarice and Lust (1885–1887)
- Damned Women (1885–1890)
- The Old Tree (1885)
- Paolo and Francesca (1885)
- Young Mother (1885)
- Young Mother in the Grotto (1885)
- Young Woman with a Serpent (c. 1885)
- The Three Shades (1886)
- Meditation (1886)
- Fugitive Love (1886–87)
- Ovid's Metamorphoses (1886–1889)
- Pierre de Wiessant (1887)
- Head of Saint John the Baptist (1887)
- The Sirens (1887)
- Polyphemus (1888)
- Standing Mercury (1888)
- The Kneeling Man (1888)
- Adonis Awakens (1889)
- Andromeda (1889)
- Glaucus (1889)
- Kneeling Female Faun (1889)
- The Succubus (1889)
- Despair (c. 1890)
- Brother and Sister (1890)
- Danaid (1890)
- Cybele (1890/1904)
- Monument to Balzac (1892–1897)
- Balzac in the Robe of a Dominican Monk (1892)
- Youth Triumphant (c. 1894)
- Octave Mirdeau (1895)
- Iris, Messenger of the Gods (c. 1895)
- Bacchantes Embracing (c. 1896)
- The Spirit of Eternal Repose (1898–99)
- Illusions Received by the Earth (pre-1900)
- The Athlete (1901–1904)
- The Death of Adonis (1903–1906)
- Adam and Eve (1905)
- The Walking Man (1907)
- The Cathedral (1908)
- The Prayer (1909)
- Standing Female Faun (1910)
- Musée Rodin (Hôtel Biron), Paris
- Rodin Museum, Philadelphia
- Museu Rodin Bahia, Salvador
- Plateau (closed)
- 1888–89 Claudel bust
- 1909 Bourdelle bust
- Rodin — The Thinker (1902 photograph)
- Camille Claudel (1988 film)
- Camille Claudel (2003 musical)
- Camille Claudel 1915 (2013 film)
- Rodin (2017 film)
- Rodin (crater)
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