Rodin on Art.

Illustrated with many reproductions of Rodin's sculptures and drawings, this book comprises a profound education in art, for it distills the knowledge and experience of the artist universally regarded as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo. Bernard Shaw, who sat for a portrait by Rodin, wrote of him, "He has only two qualities that make him the most divine worker that ever was. The first is a vision more profound and exact than that of the others. The second is a veracity and incorruptibility". These are the very qualities that animate the pages of this book, that make it invaluable for the reader to whom the experience and understanding of art are of great importance. Rodin shows, for example, how actions that are false in reality become true in painting. From his close study of masterpieces of painting and sculpture we learn the qualities that differentiate the work of Raphael and Michelangelo, Titian and Veronese, Rubens and Rembrandt, Durer and Holbein. In the chapter in which he examines Greek sculpture by lamplight, Rodin explains, in revealing detail, how he learned "the science of modeling". We learn what elements comprise the beauty of masterpieces of art and why every great work has a quality of mystery. We virtually witness his molding a figure "by Phidias" explaining, as he does so, which four alternatively opposed planes characterize all Greek art and give it its calm and grace. After a series of fascinating reflections on the difference between literary and artistic methods, the final chapter "On the Usefulness of the Artist" is a marvelous unfolding of the joy implicit in the search for truth. Richard Howard (b. 1929), makes a revealing assessment of Rodin in his introductory essay. A Pulitzer-Prize winning poet (1970), critic and translator, Richard Howard holds a unique place in contemporary American letters. Howard is credited with introducing modern French fiction to the American public.