Bacchantes Embracing (Bacchantes s'enlaçant)
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Rodin executed more than half a dozen groups of embracing female lovers in poses of ecstasy and abandon, including Bacchantes Embracing and Damned Women (on view nearby). Although it is not known when this work was titled or by whom, the allusion to mythology placed these passionate figures at a temporal and conceptual remove, thus making the then-taboo subject more acceptable to a conservative audience. Interestingly, one of the women here is not even a bacchante (a follower of the wine god Bacchus), but rather a female faun, identified by her goatlike legs and cloven hooves.
Caption
Auguste Rodin French, 1840–1917. Bacchantes Embracing (Bacchantes s'enlaçant), possibly before 1896; cast after 1967. Bronze, 15 × 15 × 11 in. (38.1 × 38.1 × 27.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor, 84.77.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 84.77.2_bw.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Cast by
Title
Bacchantes Embracing (Bacchantes s'enlaçant)
Date
possibly before 1896; cast after 1967
Geography
Place made: France
Medium
Bronze
Classification
Dimensions
15 × 15 × 11 in. (38.1 × 38.1 × 27.9 cm)
Signatures
On rock behind figure with proper right knee up: "Rodin"
Inscriptions
Rock, side toward which upraised elbow points: "VII/XII"
Markings
Near signature: "CIRE PERDUE AF"
Credit Line
Gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor
Accession Number
84.77.2
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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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