AUGUSTE RODIN · THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS A Resource for Educators |  THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART | AUGUSTE RODIN · THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS A Resource for Educators N E L L Y S I L A G Y B E N E D E K THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART This resource was produced in conjunction with the special exhibition ’    held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from October , ,through January ,  The exhibition was organized by the Iris and B.Gerald Cantor Foundation The exhibition in New York was made possible,in part,by The Georges Lurcy Charitable and Educational Trust ©  by The Metropolitan Museum of Art Author, Nelly Silagy Benedek Designer, Emsworth Design, Inc. Production, Masha Turchinsky Editor, Joan Meinhardt Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Benedek, Nelly Silagy Auguste Rodin: the Burghers of Calais: a resource for educators/Nelly Silagy Benedek. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references ISBN --- . Rodin, Auguste, –. Burghers of Calais— Study and Teaching (Secondary) I. Rodin, Auguste, –. II. Title NB.RA  '. —dc – On the cover Auguste Rodin, French (–) The Burghers of Calais –,cast  Bronze ½ x  x  in. (. x . x . cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art Gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor,  . CONTENTS SUGGESTIONS FOR EDUCATORS  INTRODUCTION  CLASSROOM ACTIVITY  THE STORY OF THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS  THE INDIVIDUAL BURGHERS  HISTORY OF THE COMMISSION  RODIN’S INNOVATIONS  BRIDGE TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY  DEGAS  PHOTOGRAPHY  RODIN’S CRITICS  CASTING RODIN’S SCULPTURE  CHRONOLOGY OF THE ARTIST’S LIFE  BIBLIOGRAPHY  |  SUGGESTIONS FOR EDUCATORS Teachers of various age groups and subjects understanding of the artist’s craft and the will find this material useful. This resource skills necessary to create a work of art. They will be of particular interest to those who will learn how an artist makes choices and teach language arts, visual arts, European decisions about the form and content of his history, art history, and French. or her work. In addition to the classroom activity included in this resource, students Following are suggestions on how to incor- may write a formal critique of The Burghers porate this resource into your curriculum of Calais,thereby gaining an understanding using the New York State Learning Stan- of how historians, art historians, and art crit- dards for the Arts as a guideline: ics formulate their ideas about art and/or history. Standard :Creating,performing, and participating in the arts Standard :Responding to and analyzing works of art > Students will develop their own ideas and images through the exploration and > Students will explore the meanings,pur- creation of artworks based on themes or poses,and sources of a work of art.They actual events.After learning about Rodin’s will describe their responses to the work sculpture The Burghers of Calais, students and the likely reasons for those responses. may create their own drawings or sculptures By doing the classroom activity described in depicting a famous historical event or illus- this resource, students will both describe trating the idea of heroism. Students may what they see in Rodin’s sculpture The design a work like Rodin’s that focuses on Burghers of Calaisand consider the ideas humanizing the event or the people por- expressed in the piece. After learning the trayed. history of the sculpture, they will discuss why and how Rodin chose to render his fig- Standard :Knowing and using ures the way he did. arts materials and resources > Students will describe the visual and > Students will increase their understand- other sensory qualities (texture,shape,size, ing of art by viewing slides and by visiting a and volume) of a work of art.By viewing the museum to see an original work of art. slides of Rodin’s work as well as slides of Teachers may do the classroom activity work by other artists, doing the classroom described in this resource and then follow activity, and discussing Rodin’s sculpture, up with a visit to either The Metropolitan students will be able to describe how Rodin Museum of Art or a local museum or gallery creates movement, texture, and shape, and to see an original sculpture. Students may how he conveys emotion in his piece. then discuss the differences between view- ing slides of a work and seeing the original. > Students will explain how the ideas, themes,or concepts in a work of art are > Students will become acquainted with expressed in other disciplines,specifically art history to understand what is required science,literature,and social studies. to become an artist,historian,art historian, In relation to science andphotography, and/or art critic.By learning about Rodin’s students may compare Rodin’s sculpture to life and work, students will develop an the stop-action photography of Eadweard | Muybridge. The photographer’s images of Standard :Understanding the cultural people and animals in motion mirror the dimensions and contributions of the arts effect of the six burghers’ repeated gestures. > Students will explore the significance of Social studiesstudents may discuss Rodin’s Rodin’s piece in terms of its cultural context sculpture in terms of its subject matter. The and will compare Rodin’s work to the art of Burghers of Calaisis a tribute to six men who other cultures and/or eras. were prepared to die in order to liberate the French town of Calais, under siege by King Students may write a short research paper Edward III of England in , during the comparing Rodin’s The Burghers of Calais Hundred Years’ War. The sculpture offers with public sculptures in their own neigh- Rodin’s perspective on what it means to be borhoodsthat pay tribute to a hero or heroic in times of war. His heroes, however, famous leader. The students may discuss are not examples of unqualified bravery. how the artists express the idea of heroism They are conflicted individuals exhibiting a or bravery in different ways or how the range of emotions, including doubt, despair, depictions of heroism are similar. and confusion. Students may compare Rodin’s sculpture to > Using the language of art criticism,stu- works by Edgar Degas. Both Rodin and dents will write analyses and interpreta- Degas created forms—specifically torsos, tions of Rodin’s work.In addition to doing limbs, and faces—that they use repeatedly the classroom activity in this resource, stu- throughout their work. Constructing com- dents may research Rodin’s work and read positions in this way creates a sense of critical reviews of his sculpture in books and movement throughout the piece; it also periodicals. They then may discuss how crit- focuses attention on the rhythm of the for- ics of Rodin’s time interpreted his work and mal arrangement rather than on a descrip- compare these responses with their own. tion of a particular event or person. > Students will analyze and interpret the Studentsalso may compare Rodin’s work to ways in which psychological concepts are the art of twentieth-century artists. Discus- explored in The Burghers of Calais.By dis- sions may focus on how Rodin’s work was cussing the expressions on the faces of the six innovative in expressing psychological con- burghers, students will attempt to determine tent as well as in experimenting with form. which emotions and concepts are explored by the artist as well as their significance. Students also may discuss Rodin’s sculptures in relation to those produced by non-Euro- > Students will describe the impact of the pean artists, such as artists from Africa and work of art on the viewer.Students will Asia. Students may focus how artists from describe the impact of Rodin’s sculpture on different cultures depict the human figure. the viewer through discussions and through the writing exercise described in this resource. |  | INTRODUCTION Rodin’s sculpture The Burghers of Calais* consists of six figures standing in various positions and facing in different directions. They stand together on the same level—no figure is elevated above another—wear the same plain garments, and possess similar physiques. However, they all exhibit differ- ent facial expressions: sorrow, despair, determination. This resource will discuss the following questions: Who are these men? What is their relationship to one another? What are they doing? Why are their hands and feet so large in comparison with their bodies? Why are they facing in different directions? Does the sculpture tell a story? Why is it an important work of art? Students will benefit most from this resource by discovering Rodin’s sculpture and its message on their own.The class- room activity is designed for students to study The Burghers of Calaisbefore they know anything about the story or Rodin’s life.Teachers also may benefit by doing the activity themselves before reading the other sections of this resource. * The title of the sculpture in French is Le Monument aux Bourgeois de Calais. |  CLASSROOM ACTIVITY BEFORE GIVING THE AFTER DISCUSSING STUDENTS INFORMATION THE STORY OF THE BURGHERS ABOUT THE SCULPTURE . . . OF CALAIS . . . > Show the slides of TheBurghers of Calais > After you have discussed the sculpture to your students and/or display the poster with your students and told them the story included in this resource. of the burghers, ask them to do the exercise > Ask your students to focus on one of the again, this time incorporating the knowl- six figures. edge they have acquired from the discus- > Have the students closely study the figure sions. they have chosen and then imagine them- selves as that figure. Ask them to write an The purpose of this exercise is for students account of their point of view, their thoughts to see how their responses to the sculpture and feelings, based on what they see in the remain the same or differ once they know sculpture. Their comments should be writ- the specifics of the narrative. ten in the first person, as though they were one of the men in Rodin’s sculpture. > Have the students read their comments aloud, then ask if the other students can guess which figure is being discussed. > Compare the comments of students who chose the same figure. How are the observa- tions similar? How are they different? Which emotions does Rodin convey? How has Rodin expressed these emotions? > Compare the comments about different figures. Are there any similarities? The purpose of this exercise is for students to accomplish the following: > Articulate their reactions to the sculpture in writing > Discover how each student may interpret the sculpture in his or her own way > Understand the complexity and variety of the figures’ expressions and poses > Begin exploring the significance of the piece and, specifically, the relationships among the various figures and the message conveyed by the sculpture in its entirety |