The Thinker
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Thinker (French: Le Penseur) is a famous bronze statue made by the sculptor Auguste Rodin. Though this statue is widely known as "The Thinker," Rodin first called it The Poet. It was part of a commission by the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris to create a huge gate based on the epic poem The Divine Comedy of Dante. Each of the statues in the piece represented one of the main characters in the poem. The Thinker was originally meant to depict Dante himself in front of the Gates of Hell, considering his great poem.
Over twenty casts of the sculpture exist; they are now in museums around the world. Some of those copies are enlarged versions of the original work, while others have somewhat different proportions.
The Thinker was finished in 1880.
[edit] External links
- The Thinker project, Munich. Discussion of the history of the many casts of this artwork.
