Near the end of his life, the master sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) hired the poet Rainer Maria Rilke to serve as his secretary. Intensely sensitive to art and able to express this awareness in prose of great lyricism and clarity, in 1903 Rilke published a profound meditation on the unique power of Rodin’s sculpture. Written around a chronology of Rodin’s work, it is also an introduction to some of the greatest sculpture of the 19th century. A translation was soon produced by the American poet and artist Jessie Lemont. Unavailable for many years, this translation is reprinted here together with Rilke’s original illustrations.
"All right, Ben. Attend me." "Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist-a master-and that is what Auguste Rodin was-can look at an old woman, protray her exactly as she is...and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be...and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart...no matter what the merciless hours have done to her. Look at her, Ben. Growing old doesn't matter to you and me; we were never meant to be admired-but it does to them."
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
