Accused of Being Cast from a Living Body: The Age of Bronze

The Age of Bronze was made right after Rodin returned from his trip to Italy. Seeing the sculptures of Renaissance masters like Michelangelo and Donatello firsthand had left a deep impression on him, and that influence runs straight through this piece.

The figure's pose is remarkably lifelike. The model was a young soldier named Auguste Neyt, an ordinary man rather than a professional model. Rodin deliberately chose a non-professional, since he wanted to capture the unguarded, natural posture an ordinary person could offer, rather than the stiff, rehearsed poses typical of professional models. It was an astonishingly bold pose by the standards of the time, and the work drew widespread praise for feeling alive rather than carrying the usual rigidity of sculpture.

But precisely because the pose looked so natural, rumors spread that Rodin must have cast it directly from a real body. The claim had no basis in fact, but false rumors tend to travel faster than true ones, and it caused Rodin considerable stress — all the more so because he wanted the French government to purchase the piece, and the rumor made officials reluctant to do so. In the end, though, the government was won over by Rodin's sheer skill and commissioned the work. The sculpture now belongs to the Musée d'Orsay, on long-term loan here at the Musée Rodin.