The genesis of the Torse de la Grande Ombre is related to Auguste Rodin’s The Gates of Hell – the artist’s most ambitious sculptural project, which occupied over thirty years of his life. The project was inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy and specifically by its first part, Inferno, which narrates the poet’s epic journey in the lower Kingdom of the Underworld.

On top of the Gates, Rodin placed the Three Shades (Les Ombres), a sculptural group composed of three repeated identical figures. As Rodin’s Gates do not directly reference the motto Dante reports on the entrance doorway of Hell (‘lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate’ – abandon all hope, ye who enter), the Shades have been generally interpreted as a visual rendition of the poet’s words. The present bronze sculpture derives from a plaster study for the Shade Rodin conceived between 1902 and 1904.

The pose of the Torse offers an insight into Rodin’s sculptural influences. The artist was particularly indebted to the works of the ancient Greek and Roman civilisation, and to the masters of the Italian Renaissance. The twisted pose was thoroughly exploited in Hellenistic Greek statuary. This was then revisited by Michelangelo, both in painting (e.g. Sistine Chapel ceiling, Rome) and in sculpture (e.g. Medici Tombs, Florence). Exasperating the torsion of the Shade’s Torso, Rodin thus placed his piece in line with the greatest tradition of Western art.