The Kiss

The work you are looking at now is a sculpture called The Kiss.

This is one of Rodin’s most famous masterpieces.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the sculpture.

The two figures depicted in this sculpture are Paolo and Francesca, characters from Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Francesca, a young woman who married the lord of Rimini, falls in love with Paolo, her husband’s younger brother.

Eventually, the two cross a line they should not have crossed.

Rodin captured this moment of forbidden love between the two figures in this sculpture.

Originally, this sculpture was planned as one of the major works to decorate The Gates of Hell.

However, because the sculpture was considered too beautiful and idealized to fit the dark theme of The Gates of Hell, Rodin decided to replace it with another work.

Even so, Rodin did not completely remove the theme of The Kiss from The Gates of Hell. Instead, he created a different version and placed a smaller sculpture of the couple kissing in the lower right section of The Gates of Hell.

In that smaller version the man and woman are still kissing, but details such as their poses are different.

Now, let’s take another look at the sculpture.

If you look closely at the sculpture, you can see that this work beautifully demonstrates Rodin’s technique called non-finito.

Non-finito is an Italian term that means “unfinished.”

If you look at the sculpture, the rock where the two figures are sitting has a rough texture and appears as if Rodin stopped carving before completing it.

This is an example of the non-finito technique.

Also, while the faces and bodies of the two figures are carved with incredible detail, their arms and legs are left less refined.

This shows that Rodin focused on the emotions and the main movements of the figures, while paying less attention to less important details.

This is another example of the non-finito technique.

Rodin unveiled this sculpture to the public in 1887.

As soon as it was presented, the work became known as The Kiss and achieved great success.

By the way, this sculpture was made from Carrara marble, a high-quality marble quarried in the Carrara region of northern Italy.

Carrara marble is considered one of the finest marbles in the world. In fact, many masterpieces were created using this marble, including Michelangelo’s Pietà in the Vatican, the Pantheon in Rome, and Marble Arch in London.

Perhaps that is why this sculpture feels so elegant and luxurious, doesn’t it?

Take your time appreciating the work, and when you’re ready, we’ll move on to the next one.