Rodin: The Man and His Art, with Leaves from His Note-bookCladel, Judith
General
Rodin: The Man and His Art, with Leaves from His Note-book
Cladel, Judith
Rodin, Auguste, 1840-1917
Arches are formed without effort of all the parts of the eye. The hinges
of the eyes open and close. The open mouth keeps back neither the
thoughts nor the words that have been spoken. There is no need for her
to speak. Her age, her thoughts, all is a confession here--the features,
the arch of the frank, noble mouth, as well as the form of the nose and
the sensitive nostrils.
And this infantile glance under a woman's eyelid! Our soul demands
that, by an agreement with the heavens, the feminine glance should be
celestial.
[Illustration: LA PENSÉE.]
How I bathe in the calm beauty of these eyes, with their regular
drawing! How they themselves declare their tranquil joy! Sometimes eyes
like these seem to be inhabited by spirits. They close, and I see the
horizontal lashes, the lower lid, which just rests against the upper. I
see as a whole the soft oval of these long eyes, the double circle of
the lids themselves, and the circle beneath, so modest now, but which
one calls the circle of love.
The eyeball in moving shows the clear pupil, and all about it press the
circles of the delicate lids. The soul finds a refuge in these secret
hiding-places, and throws out its circles of attraction like a lasso.
This sensuous soul is the soul of beautiful portraits.
The cheeks curve against the socket of the eye; the double arch of the
brows prolongs itself behind them. The surface of the cheeks extends to
the extremity of the nose, forms a double depression by the sinking of
the cheek, which grows hollow toward the convex lip, and surrounds the
mouth and the two lips. These facial lines and surfaces all stop at the
chin, toward which all the curves converge.
The facial expressions proceed from, spread, and move in another circle.
They all disappear in the cheeks, just as do the movements of the mouth.
One curve passes down from the ear to the mouth; a small curve draws
back the mouth and also the nose a little. A circle passes under the
nose, the chin, to the cheekbones; a deep curve, which starts back to
the cheekbone, cuts in a small hollow to the eyebrow. The features are
distinct; but when they move, they merge into one another. The smile
passes over the face by a circle defining the mouth. The edge of the
mouth is defined by a mezzotint at the point of union.
The loose hair surrounds the cheek, and the head seems like a golden
fleece on a distaff. It hangs like loosened garlands. How beautifully
these garlands of hair are arranged, with the profile in a three-quarter
view, standing out against the fine, tawny hair! The impressive harmony
between the flesh and the hair! They seem altogether in accord; they
lend each other languor and charm; they are united and separated at the
same time. These drooping clusters of chestnut-blond hair are a frame.
One might call them long flowers hanging from the edge of a vase.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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