A Puzzling Statue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us take a closer look at this astonishing work: is there a single woman in the world who would agree to be depicted with so many, shocking flaws? As we scan the statue from bottom to top, we discover, in turn, splayed toes forming a rather inelegant foot, then legs whose flesh appears damaged, such is the lack of polish on the bronze surface \u2013 one might even imagine the presence of varicose veins\u2026 Moving round to the back of Eve, we discover a somewhat withered bottom, even though the character\u2019s age would not suggest such ageing; moreover, the hips, contrary to French aesthetic tradition, are decidedly unimpressive. Worse still: the left arm is depicted with overly developed musculature, which would be more appropriate for a male figure. The breasts are unattractive, one hidden and the other distorted by the twisting of the arms, whilst the face is strikingly lacking in delicacy; the nose is deliberately crooked, and the hair is unkempt, with a few fingers of the left hand mingling amongst the strands. A hand, incidentally, whose completeness is doubtful\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every detail of this figure conveys a deformity intended by the artist. Let us step back to view the work as a whole and try to grasp its movement. One is even more struck by its instability: from the front, she appears to be leaning slightly to the right, as if on the verge of falling; the position of her legs suggests a hesitant forward movement, like a step she wishes to take but cannot, or a pose that is anything but static. The overall twisting of the body conveys a sense of flight, emphasised by the position of the left palm\u2014the only part of the body turned upwards\u2014yet turned upwards to shield herself, as if to ward off a terrible lightning that might suddenly strike.. . The right hand, meanwhile, clings nervously to the ribs and conveys the figure\u2019s complete withdrawal into itself. The German poet Rilke describes her in this manner:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The head sinks deep into the darkness of the arms, which are drawn across the chest as if the person were cold. Her back is rounded, her nape almost horizontal, her posture inclined as if she were listening intently to her own body, where an unfamiliar future is beginning to stir. And it is as though the weight of this future were bearing down on the woman\u2019s senses, pulling her downwards, away from her distracted life, into the deep and humble servitude of motherhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rainer Maria Rilke2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n A doomed woman?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We have therefore a very strong initial impression: in the midst of misfortune and anguish, Eve must keep walking even though the path seems insurmountable; she strives to remain standing in order to carry on living, even though part of her would tend to destroy itself. Overwhelmed by the superior force looming over her, she nevertheless resists, and this ultimate resistance gives her a surge of vitality\u2026 She is on the brink of despair, and reminds us of the damned figure depicted by Michelangelo in the Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rodin was a close reader of Dante, and so traces of the Divine Comedy<\/em> can be found in this Eve<\/em>: the figure\u2019s crouched posture is reminiscent of the damned in Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/em>, in particular the character of Francesca, Paolo\u2019s lover \u2013 a pair of lovers to whom Rodin dedicated another sculpture. In her grief, she utters these lines, which we might imagine on Eve\u2019s lips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n E quella a me: Nessun maggior dolore And she said to me: There is no greater pain than to remember happy times whilst in misery; and your Master knows this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dante, Divine Comedy3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Despair: this is a theme that inspired Rodin\u2026 And it was above all in women that he found his source of inspiration, for he wrote: \u2018I owe everything to women; they walk like masterpieces<\/em>\u20194<\/a><\/sup>. This is evident in this other bronze sculpture, in which a woman is curled up in her grief:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us therefore try to grasp the sense of movement that Rodin sought to imbue his figure with: Eve is not merely a woman in pain; she is a being who has come from a paradise where suffering was unknown, and who now finds herself in a tragic world where suffering has become daily reality. Although she is staggering, she is still standing, and this posture expresses her moral downfall, her transition from innocence to guilt, with that upturned palm defying divine condemnation. Let us recall how Rodin viewed movement in sculpture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Movement is the transition from one posture to another. [\u2026] You will also recall how, in Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/em>, a serpent clinging to the body of a damned soul transforms itself into a man whilst the man turns into a reptile. The great poet describes this scene so ingeniously that, in each of these two beings, one can follow the struggle between the two natures as they gradually encroach upon one another and supplant one another. In short, it is a metamorphosis of this kind that the painter or sculptor brings about by setting his figures in motion. He depicts the transition from one pose to another: he shows how imperceptibly the first slips into the second. In his work, one can still discern a part of what was, and one discovers, in part, what is to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Auguste Rodin5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n This is what Eve expresses: our transition from innocence to guilt, our present situation of being cast out of a lost paradise, and of walking through a valley of tears. Eve is now but a shadow of what she dreams to be, of the purpose for which the Creator brought her into the world; she is ashamed of how she believes to appear in the eyes of others. She senses prying eyes all around her, hounding her: the eyes of her husband-master; the eyes of the Deceiver, laughing behind her back; the eyes of God, who has revealed to her the fall she herself chose\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n A stunning beauty<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The physical imperfections that Rodin chose to attribute to Eve are all the more striking when one compares her statue with other bronzes he created, such as \u2018The Kiss\u2019, a copy of which is in the Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts<\/em> in Lyon. Here, the perfection of the bodies radiates their beauty to express the very opposite of Eve\u2019s misfortunes: the eternal rapture of love in mutual self-giving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the museum\u2019s chapel, the work is also flanked by two statues \u2013 created during the same period, at the end of the 19th century \u2013 which offer a truly striking contrast, a \u2018 chiaroscuro<\/em>\u2019 not intended by the artists, but suggested by the museum\u2019s layout. On one side, a slender woman with an ideal and perfect figure, \u2018L\u2019Aurore<\/em>\u2019 by Alexandre Schoenewerk; and on the other, a child fervently receiving her First Communion, by Ren\u00e9 de Saint-Marceaux. They appear all the more beautiful, young and pure as Eve is revealed to be aged, disfigured and distressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So then, where does the beauty lie in this work by Rodin? Let us hear what the master himself had to say on the subject:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no such thing as a beautiful style, a beautiful design or a beautiful colour: there is only one kind of beauty, that of truth revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Auguste Rodin7<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n What Rodin sought to embody in this statue is not an expression of the aesthetic canon of feminine beauty, but rather the profound truth of the drama experienced by Eve \u2013 by all of us \u2013 through the distortion of the rules of that canon, in order to better highlight the tragic aspects of our existence. The ugliness and deformities of the body express the anguish and distress that have haunted humanity since the Fall, a truth dearer to Rodin than aesthetic emotion, or rather a truth that resonates with the drama experienced by his generation of artists, and which also forms part of the \u2018splendor veri<\/em>\u2019 (splendour of the true) that is Beauty. It is a sad truth that our existence is painful; it is therefore beautiful to represent this pain through aesthetic flaws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This statue of Eve thus expresses the anguish of the century in which Rodin lived\u2014that of the \u2018death of God\u2019, which leaves man to himself as he wanders in the midst of night. In it, we find the moral distress described by Baudelaire:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can we stifle the old, the lingering Remorse,![\"\"](\"http:\/\/biblelyonart.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/details-1024x683.png\")
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che ricordarsi del tempo felice
ne la miseria; e ci\u00f2 sa \u2019l tuo dottore.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/biblelyonart.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Desespoir-Jerome-Manoukian-musee-rodin-1.jpg\")
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That lives, quivers and writhes,
And feeds on us like the worm on the dead,
Like the grub on the oak?
Can we stifle implacable Remorse?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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