Maquette for Meditation or The Inner Voice

myminifactory

Human: Conceived around a flowing curve, her pose still evolving, Meditation emerged from an incomplete figure on the tympanum of The Gates of Hell, born out of Michelangelo's vision. She was later reimagined as part of the Monument to Victor Hugo, before being enlarged and renamed The Inner Voice. This enigmatic muse inspired the poet, who sought to capture her essence in his work. To integrate her into the monument, Rodin had to remove her arms and amputate a portion of her legs. Outside this context, the figure was showcased in its incomplete state at Dresden and Stockholm exhibitions in 1897, yet the public struggled to grasp its meaning due to its unfinished appearance. Rodin, however, held great affection for this work, which Rilke described as follows: "The arms are surprisingly absent. Rodin felt them in this instance... to be something extraneous to the body that sought to envelop itself without any external aid... The same is true of Rodin's armless statues; nothing vital is missing. One stands before them as if before a completed whole that brooks no complement," (Rilke, 1928).