Standing Mercury
Standing Mercury | |
---|---|
French: Mercure debout | |
Artist | Auguste Rodin |
Year | 1888 (1888) |
Type | Sculpture |
Medium | Bronze |
Subject | Mercury |
Dimensions | 36 cm × 37.8 cm × 20.6 cm (14 in × 14.9 in × 8.1 in) |
Location | Museo Soumaya, Mexico City |
Standing Mercury is a bronze sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin, first exhibited in 1888. Rodin depicts the mythological god Mercury, son of Maia and Jupiter—messenger of the gods and guide to the Underworld—as a young man, representing eloquence and reason. This depiction is opposite to the traditional representation of Hermes, its Greek counterpart, as a mature man.[1]
Description
Descending from high above, Mercury barely touches the ground with his toe and his body rests lightly on it with outstretched arms and vigorous musculature. This sculpture is based on Fauness, which can be seen at the top right of the maquettes for The Gates of Hell. The missing part of Mercury's body is embedded on a cloud or mound,[2] however, curator John L. Tancock affirms that in early sketches for The Gates, Mercury emerged from the rocks.
Gates of Hell
Mercury was placed on the right side of The Gates upside down. Due to Rodin's humanist preferences, the messenger of the gods doesn't have its characteristic winged feet, but is depicted more like a mortal man. In the sculptural group, Mercury is no longer a deity, but another soul among the multitude waiting to be cast to the abyss.
Praise
For Camille Claudel, Rodin's pupil and lover, the graceful ease of this piece made it one of the "happiest" ones of the artist.
Inspiration
Standing Mercury was also used by Rodin as inspiration for his Study of Apollo, one of the pieces on the base of the monument to Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, former Argentinean president.
References
External links
- Media related to Standing Mercury by Auguste Rodin at Wikimedia Commons
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- List of sculptures
- 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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