Click on any photo to see a larger image.

Rodin's Gates of Hell stand as a monumental achievement of the human imagination. They are 21 feet high, and incorporate over 180 figures. The Gates are accompanied by Adam and Eve, who stand separately while remaining part of the composition.

In 1880, Rodin was commissioned to produce "a decorative door destined for the Museum of Decorative Arts: Bas reliefs representing The Divine Comedy of Dante." The Museum of Decorative Arts was never built, but Rodin worked on these doors for the rest of his life; he died before he could see the entire structure cast in bronze.

From his position at the center of the top lintel above the main doors, The Thinker looks down on the chaos of the inferno. The Falling Man is below him, attempting perhaps to climb out of hell but doomed to remain forever falling backward (separate casting, below).

Standing atop the Gates are the Three Shades, spirits of the dead. They are, in fact, only one Shade. Rodin positioned three copies of the same figure, displaying it from different angles while, at the same time, forming an integrated whole. Atop the Gates, the figures are typically too far from the viewer for a close examination. The Cantor Center has two other castings, a smaller one (indoors, pictured) and a larger one standing at one of the entrances to the sculpture garden.

The lower panel of the left door is dominated by figures of love and death: Paolo and Francesca, whose romantic embrace Rodin displayed in The Kiss, are positioned below another famous scene from the Inferno, Ugolino and his Children. A view of that panel is below, along with a separate casting of Paolo and Francesca.

Fugit Amor, left, reaches out from the center of the right side door. The two bodies straining together are thought by some to be another image of Paolo and Francesca. Below is the face of the desperate starving father, Ugolino.

The Gates of Hell invite visitors to consider the human condition
and the transcendent power of art.

Back to Top of Page