Christ and the Magdalen

Vue de l'oeuvre

- Diaporama

    Christ and the Magdalen

    Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

    Christ and the Magdalen is one of the rare surviving sculptures inspired by religion in Rodin’s oeuvre, and possibly corresponds to a reworked version of an earlier lost Christ, influenced by Antoine-Augustin Préault (1809-79).

    Clinging to this emaciated, suffering Christ, whose overly heavy head seems to have dropped sideways, is a woman, the Magdalen, a figure originally designed for one of the damned souls on The Gates of Hell, who was then used in Meditation , the muse in Monument to Victor Hugo. The present group, which would be translated into marble for Baron Thyssen circa 1905, underscores, as Rilke wrote, “the contrast between the two bodies, imposed by the marble, [which] immediately produces an impression of the boundless sadness emanating from this subject.”


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    Date of conception :

    Circa 1894

    Dimensions :

    H. 84.5 cm ; W. 74 cm ; D. 44.2 cm

    Materials :

    Plaster, Wood model

    Inventory number :

    S.01097

    Credits :

    © Agence photographique du musée Rodin - Jérome Manoukian

    Additional information

    Iconography

    • Christ and the Magdalen(zip, 597.7 ko)