“A hand that touches no longer totally belongs from which it came. It and the object it touches or grasps together form something new, something else that has no name and that belongs to no one.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke, regarding Rodin’s sculptures The Cathedral and The Secret.
Here’s two fun things I noticed today.
- Sculpture rarely comes across in a photograph. It is a uniquely “present” art form that requires the viewer to experience it in person. To take a photograph of it, especially in the case of Rodin’s animated pieces, paralyzes it – kills it.
- The two hands in each of these pieces – and this is the first time in all my exploration of Master Rodin that I have noticed this – are not from the same person. Each is a right hand. That utterly changes the power of them. I’ve always been floored with awe with these two pieces, but this realization makes me weep. So Beautiful…
