thoreau

Auguste Rodin - The Burghers of Calais at Stanford University

David and I took a walk with Miss Kate today on the walking tour of outdoor sculpture at Stanford University. None of the sculpture (with the exception of their AMAZING Rodin Garden) really reached out and caused a WOW reaction - there were some nice modern pieces that I understood why they were collected and shown full of beautiful form and curves - but well - one piece of welded sculpture after another dulled my reactions a little. The highlight of any walking tour of Stanford is well, the Rodin Garden by the art museum with a re-creation of "The Gates of Hell" (a personal favorite of mine, and also of

bearchef's) Today in the fall sunshine we enjoyed a viewing of Rodin's sculpture "The Burghers of Calais" in the gardens of the main quad.

The Burghers of Calais is one of the most famous sculptures by Auguste Rodin, completed in 1888. It serves as a monument to an occurrence in 1347 during the Hundred Years' War, when Calais, an important French port on the English Channel, was under siege by the English for over a year.

The story goes that England's Edward III, after a victory in the Battle of Crécy, laid siege to Calais and Philip VI of France ordered the city to hold out at all costs. Philip failed to lift the siege and starvation eventually forced the city to parley for surrender. Edward offered to spare the people of the city if any six of its top leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded that they walk out almost naked and wearing nooses around their necks and be carrying the keys to the city and castle. One of the wealthiest of the town leaders, Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first and five other burghers soon followed suit and they stripped down to their breeches. Saint Pierre led this envoy of emaciated volunteers to the city gates and it is this moment and this poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice and the facing of imminent death that Rodin captures in these figures, which are scaled somewhat larger than life.

In history, though the burghers expected to be executed, their lives were spared by the intervention of England's Queen, Philippa of Hainault, who persuaded her husband by saying it would be a bad omen for her unborn child.

The monument was proposed by the mayor of Calais for the town's square in 1880. This was an unusual move, because normally only monuments to Victory were constructed, but France had suffered devastating losses in its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and it longed to recognize the sacrifice that its young men had made. Rodin's design was controversial, as it did not present the burghers in a heroic manner, rather they appeared sullen and worn. The monument was innovative in that it presented the burghers at the same level as the viewers, rather than on a traditional pedestal. It allows you to walk up to each of them and see their anguished faces.

For me - it is one of the most human pieces Rodin ever created.