Chaos versus Order

Chaos versus OrderAn Analysis of the Gates of Hell and Columbus's Door

Elizabeth Northcutt

Introduction to Humanities II 15EW3

Professor Amy Landrum

February 8, 2015

Elizabeth A. Northcutt

Introduction to Humanities II 15EW3

Professor Amy Landrum

February 8, 2015

Chaos versus Order

Auguste Rodin and Randolph Rogers were great artistic minds

in the 19th century. In Rodin’s, sculpture The Gates of Hell you

can see the technical precision and passion he put into his art.

In Rogers’, structural sculpture The Columbus Doors one can see

how he enjoyed telling a story with his art. These two piece are

massively different but at the same time portray two different

artistic viewpoints and beauty.

The Gates of Hell - Chaos

Auguste Rodin was born François-

Auguste-René Rodin on November 12, 1840,

in Paris, France. As a child he struggled

with poor vision which caused him to not

be able to see the blackboard in his frustration he focused on

drawing. (Bio) Drawing allowed Rodin to see his progress as he

0Chaos versus Order | Elizabeth Northcutt Page 1 of 25

Auguste Rodin

practiced due to him being nearsighted, not being able to see

distance. Rodin frequently drew whatever he saw or could imagine

which can be illustrated in many of his drawings and sculptures.

(Bio) It wasn’t until after he made a trip to Italy where Rodin

was inspired by “David of Donatello,” Michelangelo’s Dying Slave to

sculpt The Age of Bronze, which showed a time of pain and

suffering. The Bronze Age was suggested by some critics that it

was a casting of the live model due to the extreme realism found

in the piece, (Biographies and Lives), a sculpture of a nude man

clenching both of his fist, with the right hand hanging over his

head. A depiction of suffering amidst hope for the future. (Bio)

By 1880, when Rodin had established his

distinct artistic style and a credible list

of works of art he was commissioned to

produce a luxurious entrance to the Museum

of Decorative Arts in Paris. The portal was

inspired by Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy

and the Gates of Paradise Ghiberti, hence the

name of Gates of Hell. However, the building for which it was it was


The Gates of Hell Auguste Rodin 1880-1917

destined never got built. (Biographies and Lives) Rodin continued

his work on his most monumental sculpture until his death in

1917. Hence, numerous motifs and figures in which the artist work

for this project would mark the guidelines of most sculptures,

such as The Thinker, The Three Shades, The Kiss, and Ugolino. (Bio) Each

piece showing a different state of emotion (longing hope,

despair, fear, and passion) the Gates of Hell themselves shows

the chaos of all these emotions beautifully crafted into one

design. (Blanchetière)

The Three Shades, are laocated above The Thinker on The Gates

of Hell. Rodin made several studies of

shades, before he finally decided on a

triple representation of identical figures

that are mounted at a piviot of the same

point. (de'Roos) He had them placed at the top of the gates where

they could gaze down at the spectator, The Thinker, then had them

enlarged to create a monumental independent group in 1904. The

twisting tormented pose of The Three Shades you can see

Michelangelo’s influence is obvious here. (Blanchetière2) The


The Three Shade

Three Shades, is also a variation “Adam” with a less disstorted

attitude, with their left hands directing the eyes of the view

down to “The Thinker”who is located directly below the “Shades”.

The Shades relatation to the inevitability of fate echoes

mythological tales like that of the Greek Moirae. (de'Roos) (The

Gates of Hell) In 1887, Cosmo Monkhouse interpretes The Three

Shades as a personification of the first three lines of the

inscription over the door in Dante’s Hell:

"The Gate of Despair ... The lintel is

surmounted by a group of three nude,

emaciated, and miserable figures, the

plastic translation of the first three

lines of the well-known inscription over

the door of Dante's hell. By what sad

harmony of unlovely lines the artist has

quelled our natural aversion to such a sight, by what subtle

touches he has transformed these ghastly images into a voice

which stays our feet, possibly Rodin himself could scarcely

tell but it is something more than a tour de force, for it


shows the operation of the born artistic faculty which

cannot conceive except in accordance with the great laws of

fitness and harmony. The idea is not a pleasant one, but is

conveyed with power, and the group is 'ideal' in the

plainest sense of the word.” (de'Roos)

I see the shades as a warning of the pain someone will have to

face of one’s own self and the sins in their life. Rodin depicts

The Three Shades as Deante would find them standing in front of

The Gates warning him to take heed to the inscription above the

doors.

The Thinker, also resembles Dante as he reads the warning

what feelings are now starting to way heavy upon his mind.

"Per me si va ne la città dolente, 3.1 Through me the wayinto the suffering cityper me si va ne l'etterno dolore, Through me the wayto eternal pain, per me si va tra la perduta gente. Through me the waythe runs among the mist Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore; 3.4 Justice urged onmy high artificer;fecemi la divina podestate, My maker was divineauthority,


la somma sapïenza e 'l primo amore. The highestwisdom and the primal love. Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create 3.7 Before me nothing buteternal thingsse non etterne, e io etterno duro. Were made, and Iendure eternallyLasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate." Abandon every

hope, who enter here. (Alighieri)

Located in top panel of the doors is one of

Rodin’s most known sculptures, The Thinker,

the realistic style portrayed here by the

enteric design and the detail in the muscle

structure of the figures body shows how

much care and attention to detail Rodin

had. (Blanchetière) There is a feeling of longing and

resolvability in the facial structure. In its position in the

gates of hell, it is said the thinker is

supposed to be Dante peering into the

abyss of hell as the three shades tell

him of its horrors. (Blanchetière) Behind The Thinker there are


Top of the Gates of Hell

several figures falling over each other that appear to be demons

reaching out to him to pull him into the depths of hell.

In The Kiss, The Lovers, found along the frame of The Gates of

Hell depicts the adulterous lovers Paolo and Francesca in

different erotic poses. They were historical figures that were in

love but Francesca was married to Giovanni Malatesta, Paolo’s

older brother. This was a political marriage to end war among

their people. In a jealous rage Giovanni killed Paolo and

Francesca when he caught them in one of their acts of adultery.

In Dante’s Inferno the lovers are found in the second circle of

hell meant for the lustful, Rodin depicts this in a Romantic

style in multiple positions along the frame of The Gates of Hell.

(Shmoop Editorial Team)

“Love, which is quickly caught in the

gentle heart filled him with my fair

form, now lost to me, and the nature of

that love still afflicts me. Love, that

allows no loved one to be excused from

loving, seized me so fiercely with desire for him it still


will not leave me, as you can see. Love led us to one death.

Caïna, in the ninth circle waits, for him who quenched our

life.” (Alighieri)

Along the frame I can see the lovers are transformed into

different phases of lustful passion. As the eyes move up to the

top of the gates I could see the figures were still engulfed in

lust but are more violent in nature. This is a display of

romanticism in a form that shows both the love of two people and

the insanity that it caused them in not being able to be together

truly a tragic love story of despair.

In his first preparatory sketches, Rodin divided the right

and left doors into four vertically arranged panels with scenes

from "Hell" shown in low relief over the eight panels with a

giant figure placed in the center. However, he later lost Dante's

mythical order and it descended into a chaotic world. Rather than

Dante's world, he has entered the Hell found in man's mind,

expressed in Baudelaire's poetry, Les Fleurs du Mal. The third stage

of the 3-D clay model, which became the Gate's final composition,

can be seen in the colored plaster cast model. (The Gates of


Hell) Both the content and the compositional forms have been

transformed into chaos in this final version, which generally

represents the forms of the completed bronze work. For the rest

of his life Rodin was involved in the creation of this work.

Rodin passed away on November 17, 1917, in Meudon, France, still

working The Gates of Hell. (Bio) After Rodin’s death in 1920, the

Gates of Hell where finally pieced together from his study and

bronzed to this day were still not sure if Rodin actually

intended for this sculpture to look the way it does today. (The

Gates of Hell) This sculpture shows how ones vision can be over

shadowed by the chaos in their mind and life.

The Columbus Doors - Order

Randolph Rogers was born July 12, 1822 in

Waterloo, New York, he was a neo-classicist

sculptor that did the Christopher Columbus

doors for the US Capitol, Washington, DC. He

died January 15, 1892 in Rome, Italy.

(Sculptoer.org - Randolph Rogers) Randolph

Rogers typified the American sculptor of his


period. He along with such artists as Hiram Powers, Thomas

Crawford, and William Wetmore Story belonged to a group of

expatriate American sculptors in Europe in the mid-nineteenth

century. (Rogers)

When Randolph Rogers’ was seventeen he became an apprentice

for the bakery of D.V. and C. Bliss where he worked for three to

four years. While in this business used the pliable dough to keep

his brain and hands busy often sculpting a figure or bust then

leave it in some inconspicuous place where his employers could

find it. It was while in this business that this wonderful genius

began to show himself by turning the primitive use of dough into

pieces of art which he executed with so much skill and ingenuity.

(DePuy)


In 1853, Rogers was

asked by Captain Montgomery C. Meigs,

the Supervising Engineer of the

Capitol Extensions, to design a set

of doors for the entrance to the new

House wing from Statuary Hall. As a

subject, Rogers suggested the life of Columbus. Rogers' estimate

for the project was approved on May 24, 1855, and the artist, who

had earlier studied sculpture for three years in Italy, went to

Rome to work on the models. The commission for the Capitol was

only his second largest public work.

The Columbus Doors are also called the Rogers Doors or

Rotunda Doors, stand imposingly at the main entrance to the U.S.

Capitol Building, almost 17 feet high and weighing 20,000 pounds.

Each scene depiction of the life of Christopher Columbus is

finely modeled. (The Columbus Doors) The Capitol Building’s


construction was suspended in 1861 so that the Capitol could be

used as a military barracks, hospital and bakery for the Civil

War. However, in 1862, construction resumed, because Lincoln

believed that the Capitol must go on, just as the Union must go

on. (United States. National Park Service)

Finally, the doors were installed in 1863 and moved to their

present location in 1961 following the extension of the East

Front of the Capitol. The doors were most recently cleaned and

conserved in 2008. Because of the heavy use of the entrance by

visitors to the Capitol, areas of wear and damage must be

repaired regularly. (The Columbus Doors) Rogers, showed his

experience at wood-cuts on the doors which he had learned how to

do during his work for the Michigan Argus in the late 1830’s and

several other newspapers throughout his life. (DePuy) “Woodcut—

occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing technique

in printmaking” ( Merriam-Webster, Incorporated)


The Columbus Doors illustrates the life of Christopher

Columbus in eight square panels and

one half circle located above the

door starting at the bottom left

hand corner is Columbus Before the

Council of Salamanca (1487),

Departure from the Convent of La

Rábida (1492), Audience at the Court

of Ferdinand and Isabella (1492),

Departure of Columbus from Palos

(1492), Departure of Columbus from Palos (1492), Columbus's First

Encounter with the Indians (1492), Entry of Columbus into

Barcelona (1493), Columbus in Chains (1500),

Death of Columbus (1506). (Rogers) On the

semicircular transom of the door, a semicircular

high-relief shows the landing of Columbus on the

Island of San Salvador. On the jambs of the doors,

there are sixteen small statues set in niches

representing:


1. The Pope Alexander VI

2. Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza

3. Ferdinand, King of Spain.

4. Isabella, Queen of Spain.

5. Charles VIII, King of France.

6. Beatriz de Bobadilla,

Marchioness of Moya

7. John II, King of Portugal

8. Henry VII, King of England

9. Fray Juan Perez, Prior of the

Convent of La Rábida.

10. Martin Alonzo Pinzon,

commander of the Pinta.

11. Hernando Cortes, conqueror

of Mexico.

12. Bartholomew Columbus,

brother of Columbus

13. Alonzo de Ojeda, a

companion of Columbus.

14. Vasco Nuñez de Balboa,

discoverer of the Pacific

Ocean.

15. Amerigo Vespucci, New

World was named.

16. Francisco Pizarro,

conqueror of Peru.

Over the transom, is a grand head of Columbus, beneath which

is an. American eagle with extended wings. Between the panels and

at top and bottom of the leaves of the door, are ten projecting

heads. Those between the panels are historians who have written

about the voyages of Columbus from his own time down to the

present day, ending with Irving and Prescott. The two heads at

the tops of the leaves are female heads, and the two next the

floor have Indian characteristics. In the Rotunda of the

Capitol, there are four high-reliefs over the doors, one


representing Columbus and the others, Raleigh, Cabot and La

Salle. (Rogers)

Rogers' oeuvre includes many important civic monuments such

as the Columbus Doors at The Capital, The Michigan Soldiers' and

Sailors' Monument, Abraham Lincoln at Fairmount Park in

Philadelphia, and numerous Civil War monuments. Rogers' most

famous work, Nydia, is considered one of the best examples of

nineteenth-century American sculpture. The first comprehensive

treatment of the sculptor's life and works includes a catalogue

of over 100 sculptures, some 80 illustrations, and a critical

appraisal of a neglected period of American art. (Rogers)

In 1883, Randolph Rogers had a debilitating stroke that left

him paralyzed on his right side and with a stuttering problem, it

was a career ender for Rogers. He retired from the Academy of Art

in Munich, Rome, where he had graduated and later became a

professor, closed the doors to his studio and began selling off

or donating all of his plaster cast and molds. (Scripps) Most of


his cast and molds were donated to his childhood home in Ann

Arbor, MI where they were placed in in the Old Michigan

University Library Basement waiting on an art museum to be built.

Apparently the cast, along with the majority of Rogers's plaster

works, was stored in the basement and tunnels beneath University

Hall, where they were subjected to the steam heat. Although some

were later exhibited in Alumni Memorial Hall (built 1910 to

contain an art gallery), all were eventually lost due to

deterioration among these were the original cast of The Columbus

Doors. (Randolph Rogers : Heroic Figure Of Michigan)

Although many of Randolph Rogers original cast were

destroyed due to neglect many of his original works of art have

been preserved and maintained for over a century allowing

generations to marvel in the distinct order and care he put into

every piece. His remarkable presentation of The Doors of Columbus

shows how much research he put into this finish piece of art

history in his own neo-classical form.

Beauty is found among the Chaos and Order


Rodin and Rogers were remarkable creative minds that shaped

the way art is perceived still to this day. Rodin lived through

criticism and critics and was never truly perceived as the true

genus he is today. I have found out that because of his status in

the art world when he was alive he was often in debit and lived

day by day. Rogers on the other hand was acclaimed in his time

being a well published and sought after for his precision to

detail, he was well educated and even was a professor of art, but

for some reason in today’s society very little is known about him

and his life. A lot of Rogers’ sculptures have been left to the

element and destroyed throughout time leaving only dust behind.

Rodin’s art appears to come more from his heart and the way

he felt which lead to many of his pieces being thought of as an

undesirable lack of order. The Gates of Hell shows all of his

pain, fear, love, and happiness in one sculpture and this is

something you can see in many of his sculptures. As Rodin got old

he probably lost more and more of his eyesight which cause him to

become more engulfed into his art because this was probably the

few things he could actually see. He allowed his hands to show


the world what he saw which is why if you look at the detail

shown on The Lovers scene you can see how the attention to the arms

of the lovers as they embrace themselves. In the “The Thinker” and

“The Three Shades” you can see in the scenes depicted that he took

great care and attention to these showing pain, fear, order and,

chaos all at one time. The Gates of Hell from a distance cast an

extremely looming shadow of impending doom, which could cause the

view to not want to look closer to actually see the scenes unfold

that are shown. Rodin worked on The Gates of Hell when he found

love, got married, lost his wife and then him himself died.

Throughout, the gates you can see all of his emotions of all of

the time periods, love, lost, and death this can lead to an

undescriptive chaotic mess normally but at the hands of Rodin it

left desirable beauty.

Rogers was an acclaimed artist of his time that sculpted

several monuments in his time, depicting The Civil War,

Presidents, Greece Mythology, and famous moments in time. In his

sculpture of the Doors of Columbus you can see all of these

influences. Rogers, put everything he knew into this on


structural piece of art, but also researched each image and

figure to depict Christopher Columbus’s life with accurate

historical reference. With his research he discovered memorable

moments in Christopher Columbus’s life and the influential people

involved in it, along with the historians that studied Columbus’s

life before and during Rogers’ life. Even though Rogers was in

several newspapers during his time especially in Ann Arbor

Chronicle’s out of Michigan mainly due to the fact that this was

his childhood home, but now there isn’t much known about him

besides what was published in these news articles, he has become

a forgotten artist that left behind the beautifully illustrated

chronological life of Christopher Columbus in these bronze doors.

In conclusion, through August Rodin and Randolph Rogers we

can learn more about society’s cultural advances in art and how

these two artist shaped the art world as a whole. How society

acknowledges artist and how they forget about them. The Gates of

Hell and The Doors of Columbus show cases these two artistic

talents and the development of their methodology. Rodin believed

that art was the truest expression of the soul, while Rogers


showed art should be studied and researched before it came to

realization. But, with the chaos of Rodin and the order of Rogers

they both ended up with beautiful sculptures that show a little

bit about the lives of these men.


Works Cited

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Gustave Dore. Trans. A. S. Kline. Poetry In Translation,

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