Louvre exhibition puts masterpieces by Michelangelo and Rodin face-to-face

Sculptures by Renaissance master Michelangelo and modern pioneer Auguste Rodin can be seen side-by-side at the Louvre in a new exhibition examining their shared vision of the human body.

The exhibition, titled “Living Bodies,” opens on Wednesday (April 15) and brings together more than 200 works, including marbles, bronzes, plasters and casts, drawn from the Louvre’s collections and international loans.

Michelangelo (1475‑1564) and Rodin (1840‑1917) are separated by nearly four centuries, yet both are considered pivotal figures in the evolution of Western sculpture.

Curators said on Tuesday (April 14) the exhibition explores how Rodin absorbed and reinterpreted Michelangelo’s ideas while forging a distinctly modern approach.

Exhibition curator Marc Bormand said Rodin first discovered Michelangelo's works through copies in plaster at Paris' School of Fine Arts, before seeing his original works when he travelled to Florence. "He said to himself: ‘This great magician has revealed some of his secrets to me.'", Bormand said.

Works on display include Rodin’s Adam, The Age of Bronze and The Thinker, shown alongside Michelangelo’s The Dying Slave and Christ on the Cross.

Chloe Ariot, another curator said the exhibition places the living body at the centre of the encounter between the two artists.

“This body interests them not simply as a shell of flesh, but truly because it is inhabited by an inner life and because it is sustained by life“, Ariot said.

The exhibition is on view at the Louvre Museum in Paris until July 20.

Production: Lauren Bacquie/Reuters