Compare and Contrast "The Kiss"

691 Words3 Pages
Everyone has different interpretations of everlasting embrace. Sculptors Constantin Brancusi and Auguste Rodin are no different. Rodin created THE KISS in hopes “to render inner feeling through muscular movement” (Irvine 1). Compared to Brancusi’s THE KISS is showing, in my opinion of becoming one in a relationship. Both sculptures use the same subject of love but with different movements and shapes we see vastly different meanings. Each sculpture has a different idea and meaning of how the embrace of love should appear. Beginning with the different uses of stone by Brancusi and marble by Rodin, we see different meanings behind each sculpture. Both Rodin and Brancusi portray different representations of embracing the ideas and feelings of love but the same subject of love. Created in 1886 out of marble, Rodin’s THE KISS portrays an embrace between two lovers. This sculpture is a life-size figure representing “western ideals of the masculine and feminine” (Frank 34). The masculine features how hard and solid the marble is compared the feminine of the bodily features creating a natural softness. The carvings of the life-like features represent a naturalism of the embrace of a kiss. The viewer can relate to this piece due to its embrace. Inspired by Dante’s tale of Paolo and Francesca, the moment of this kiss is showing two lovers embracing after a tumultuous relationship. For further example of the background of this sculpture, in the 13th century, a noblewoman fell in love with her husband’s brother while reading a story of Lancelot and Guinevere. The couple was discovered and killed by her husband. Upon viewing the sculpture we see the lover’s lips don’t actually touch as if they were interrupted. The viewer can feel the love and embrace between this couple through the features of the body. Brancusi’s THE KISS, created in 1916, has the same subject as Rodin’s THE
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