Bronze Age

myminifactory

Rodin fashioned a physically flawless figure, an individual at a near-naive spiritual level. Initially, he sought to portray the man as wounded, but influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the natural surroundings of Brussels, the Man of the Forest emerged instead. Ultimately, this work was titled after the Bronze Age. Following his departure from Brussels in 1877, Rodin aimed to create a piece that would solidify his reputation as a sculptor once and for all. For eighteen months, he used a 22-year-old Flemish soldier as his model. The individual's posture and movement reflected the person who is becoming self-aware and prepared for what lies ahead. The work's dynamism led some members of the Salon des Artistes français to suspect that Rodin had directly molded the figure from his living model.