The Burghers Of Fire By Auguste Rodin

The Burghers of Calais was a french sculpture made during the late nineteenth-century by Auguste Rodin. The nineteenth-century was a period of transition from traditional art to modern art. Auguste Rodin’s style introduced a different perspective of art and included modeled figures in unconventional poses (Stokstad and Cothren 507). He believed art should stay true to it’s nature, so he sculpted his figures with emotions that paired with the scene (“About Auguste Rodin”). In the nineteenth-century, it was common to see a single heroic figure standing tall with their head held high (“Khan Academy”). “The Burghers of Calais was a monument commissioned by the city of Calais to commemorate an event from the Hundred Years’ War” (Stokstad and Cothren 507). When Rodin was asked to create this monument, the city of Calais was expecting something
Their elongated drapes and creases on their clothing added depth and also made the clothing appear heavy on each man. This could explain the improper pose some men had with their bodies in unique hunched over poses. The plainness of their drapes could have symbolized their poverty as well as their bare feet, which perhaps meant they could not afford certain necessities. The color of this piece was a single toned dark grey. I think the colors added more depression and feeling to this sculpture. The color could have also resembled the darkness there was in society at the time. If there was a lighter shade of color then it may have been interpreted differently and not as sorrowful. In regard of space, the figures were close together and there was not much space in between each man. As a whole, they represented the same issue, but individually they had their own predicaments. What separates these men, is the fact that no one was making eye contact with one another, and each man had a unique, but somewhat similar