History of the Gates of Hell
Rodin was asked to build a monumental bronze doors for a new museum of arts. Although, Rodin was allowed to decide what to base the doors after and Rodin choose Dante’s Inferno as a theme. Within the Gates of Hell there are hundreds of small figures arranged in a manner to visualize the hell in the late 19th century. When Rodin set a release date for the gates to be bronzed in six months the new museum was cancelled, and Rodin put the Gates of Hell on the side. Rodin continued working on the Gates of Hell throughout the late 1880s and early 1890s. …show more content…
The famous Thinker, which can be interpreted as Dante looking over the characters of his Infernos, or even Rodin himself looking over the characters of the Inferno. The Three Shades is at the top of the statue, with the three figures fused together which points to a phrase of “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here (Wikipedia, 2014).” Paolo and Francesca is shown in the left door pane, where Palo tries to reach for Francesca who slipping away. One interpretation of this could be lusting for another. Those figures are just some of Rodin’s famous artworks that are intertwined in the Gates of Hell. (Wikipedia, 2014) (Lampert,