Bacchantes Embracing, Small Model (Bacchantes s'enlaçant, petit modèle)
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Rodin employed skilled assistants to make reductions or enlargements of his works using a machine invented in 1836 by the engineer Achille Collas. The model to be recreated in a new size would be placed on a turntable. On a second turntable, connected to the first, would be a clay or plaster “blank,” roughly shaped to resemble the work being resized but on an enlarged or reduced scale. The machine kept the model and the blank in the same orientation while the technician used a tracing needle linked to a sharp cutting instrument (or stylus) to transfer a succession of profiles from the model onto the blank. Gradually the blank was worked so that it became a larger or smaller duplicate of the model.
This process allowed Rodin to offer popular works at a variety of prices.
Caption
Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917). Bacchantes Embracing, Small Model (Bacchantes s'enlaçant, petit modèle), possibly before 1896; cast after 1967. Bronze, 6 5/8 x 6 1/4 x 4 1/4 in. (16.8 x 15.9 x 10.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor, 84.77.3. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Cast by
Title
Bacchantes Embracing, Small Model (Bacchantes s'enlaçant, petit modèle)
Date
possibly before 1896; cast after 1967
Geography
Place made: France
Medium
Bronze
Classification
Dimensions
6 5/8 x 6 1/4 x 4 1/4 in. (16.8 x 15.9 x 10.8 cm)
Signatures
Base, in back of figure with raised knee: "Rodin"
Inscriptions
Interior, lower edge: "4/12"
Markings
Lower edge near signature: "CIRE PERDUE AF"
Credit Line
Gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor
Accession Number
84.77.3
Frequent Art Questions
Are these figures the same? Were they made using the machine invented by Rodin?
Yes, in the 19th century it was very common for sculptors to produce multiples of their work at different scales. These were never numbered or limited in production!Rodin did not invent the reduction machine himself, but he and his studio assistants definitely made use of it!Rodin used the Collas machinem which was similar to an earlier reduction machine made by the Englishman Benjamin Cheverton in 1828 (patented 1844).
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