Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker is one of the most famous sculptures in the history of art. Endlessly reproduced and reinterpreted, it became the universal symbol of human creativity and intellectualism. The Thinker, modeled after both classical sculpture and a real body of Rodin’s contemporary, remains a complex allegory of creation and contemplation. Read on to learn more about Rodin’s The Thinker, its origins, and meanings.
Rodin’s “The Thinker”: The Origins of the Famous Figure
The legendary sculptor Auguste Rodin is responsible for shaping our contemporary understanding of sculpture. He blended together the Renaissance standards of figure representation with the expressive requirements of the modern era. Rodin embraced the rough texture of hand-treated material and distortion of form that brought intense emotional impulse to his finished work.
Like many of Rodin’s most famous sculptures, The Thinker first appeared as part of a larger project—the monumental and ambitious sculptural complex The Gates of Hell. Based on the representation of Hell by Dante Alighieri, The Gates consisted of almost 200 human figures representing suffering, dark desires, and sinful impulses. The melancholic figure of The Thinker was placed above all these tormented creatures, solemnly contemplating. Rodin worked on The Gates of Hell for 37 years and still left it unfinished. However, many figures that Rodin originally designed for the Gates gained a life of their own and transformed into the sculptor’s most famous separate pieces. Some, like the world-famous Kiss, ended up removed from the Gates altogether, as their style and emotional appeal were too different from the rest of the sculptural group.
Who Is Rodin’s “The Thinker”?
Over the years, The Thinker has turned into an allegorical figure and a symbol of philosophy and the act of thinking itself. However, there are multiple theories that could identify the thinker as a character. Let’s explore some of them.
1. Prometheus
Prometheus was a mythological Greek Titan (a descendant of the primordial gods) who had created humans from clay before the goddess Athena gave life to them. According to the myth, Prometheus was responsible for gifting humans with aspirations to look beyond their earthly realm and to strive for the gods. His most famous act, however, was stealing fire from the gods to share it with humanity. For his act, the immortal Prometheus was chained to a mountain and had to endure an eternal punishment: each day, an eagle would eat his liver from his body, and each night, the liver would grow back. Prometheus was set free after Heracles, the divine hero, and Zeus’s son, convinced the gods to have mercy.
In Western philosophy and culture, Prometheus has become a symbol of a creator moved by his love for humanity. With all his good intentions, he is ready to suffer and knows that his sacrifice will not be appreciated immediately. In that context, Rodin’s Thinker can be interpreted as a striking symbol of progress and the individual responsibility of the creator.
2. Dante Alighieri
In its original form, The Thinker had a different name and was known as The Poet. In this version, the figure relates directly to the author and protagonist of the Divine Comedy, the late medieval poet Dante Alighieri. Dante’s writing was an encyclopedia of Medieval knowledge and a fictionalized atlas of the worldview of an educated man of his era. It represented a rather typical genre of his era, the vision of the afterlife, in which the author acts as a protagonist.
According to the story, Dante, wandering through a forest (a metaphor for the life of sins and delusions), meets Virgil, the ancient poet sent to Dante as a guide by his deceased love Beatrice. Beatrice was Dante’s main source of creative inspiration. Despite seeing her only twice in her life, Dante professed his love for her in many writings. Beatrice married a banker and died young, and most likely had no idea about Dante’s feelings. In literature and philosophy, Beatrice became the symbol of divine grace and pure platonic love.
Virgil guides Dante through Hell, Heaven, and Purgatory, explaining the structure of the afterlife according to the Medieval mindset. In Rodin’s work, the figure of Dante is pensively observing the scene of human suffering unfolding below him, as he accepts his mortality and recognizes characters from his recent history punished for their deeds.
3. Rodin’s Self-Portrait
Another possible explanation for the Thinker’s identity was a partial self-insert of Rodin as the creator. Although the sculpture bears minimal formal likeness with the sculptor, the torment of the creator and inventor, evident in the Prometheus myth, could be expanded to Rodin’s self-perception. The Gates of Hell included another self-portrait of Rodin in one of the door’s lower parts. A low relief showed the bearded met in a similarly pensive pose. Around him, a small feminine figure is twirling, probably acting as an allegory of creative thought and inspiration.
4. Allegory of Thought
In the history of art, allegorical figures are figurative representations of abstract concepts and ideas such as love, philosophy, or art. In that context, The Thinker could be interpreted as a personification of reason and the force of human intellect, represented in a physically strong male form reminiscent of ancient Roman sculptures.
Rodin’s Inspiration
The signature pose of The Thinker was likely inspired by several art historical sources. One of them was the sculpture Ugolino and His Sons by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. Ugoini was an Italian nobleman and one of the Divine Comedy characters, tortured for treason in the lowest circle of Hell. The real story of Count Ugolino remains debatable, yet in Dante’s times, he was known for his alleged treason and the horrifying end of his life. For his crimes, Ugolino was imprisoned together with his children and grandchildren and left to starve. After weeks of isolation, the Count resorted to eating the bodies of his deceased children. The famous sculpture by Carpeaux that inspired Rodin depicted him in a seated pose, disturbed and anxious, chewing at his own hand as he contemplated the decision to turn to cannibalism.
Another influence came from the seated portrait of Lorenzo de Medici, sculpted by Michelangelo for the Medici Chapel. It was only part of the larger ensemble of the Medici family mausoleum. This Lorenzo de Medici, the Duke of Urbino and Florence, should not be confused with his more famous grandfather Lorenzo the Magnificent, also a Medici.
Who Was Rodin’s Model?
The face and body of The Thinker were modeled not after any abstract ideal or an antique sculpture but after Rodin’s contemporary, a relatively known figure. The sculptor’s immortalized model was a French wrestler, Jean Baud. Baud was clearly identifiable from the sculpture, and that decision was revolutionary enough. Despite sculpting his figure in a tradition similar to the works of Michelangelo, Rodin clearly professed his dedication to modernity.
The monumental build of Baud clearly had little in common with the expected body proportions of a Medieval writer Dante Alighieri. Rodin’s decision to nonetheless represent him as a Roman athlete was related to capturing the essence of intellectual effort. Rodin himself stated that his Thinker was thinking not only with his brain, but “with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips … with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes.”
Rodin’s “The Thinker” as a Universal Symbol
Although Rodin did not finish his Gates of Hell, he occasionally presented separate fragments of it as individual sculptures. The Thinker was one such case. Soon after its revelation to the public, Rodin felt the need to rework the sculpture into a larger size. A 6-foot and 7-inch tall version of The Thinker, made for the famous ophthalmologist and art collector Max Linde, became the highlight of his collection. Several years later, Edvard Munch painted The Thinker while visiting Linde’s garden.
Over the years, The Thinker became a universal symbol for intellect, rational thought, and philosophy. The emotional and physical tension of the seated figure represents the human struggle with perceiving and transforming the world. It is one of the most reproducible sculptures in the world that has been readapted for countless of various purposes, from movie references to political causes.
