ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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It is a sculpture made of white marble. It was named by Auguste Rodin as "La Mort d'Adonis" and signed as "A RODIN," near the right elbow of Aphrodite.

Origin of the work.
As Rodin's fame grew during the 1880s, demand for his work increased, so many of his works, which were originally created in smaller format, began to emerge from his study that had already grown considerably. Some of these pieces were very finished compositions, based on the coupling of figures originally conceived individually; this work is an example of this type of composition.

This sculpture has had different names: Idylle (Idilio), Le Printemps (La Primavera), Le Printemps de la vie (La Primavera de la vida) and Les Océanides (Las Oceanides). He represents the legend of Adonis, showing Aphrodite kissing the lips of the dying young man. The piece was born in The Gate of Hell, and is located at the top, in one of the four menillas, just below the Three Shadows. The pain that Cupid's mother experiences is based on the repentance of the sculptural group in the lower right corner of the portico. In this marble the finished bodies lie in opposition to the rugged surface tree. From this moment on the artist sought perfection through works that seem unfinished, just where the fragment evokes the whole.

The group of characters that make up the work appeared for the first time in the form of a drawing, on the margin of the poem "Venom" of the fucking poet Charles Baudelaire, in the edition of the Flowers of Evil illustrated for the Gallimard Editorial. In the marble of this sculpture you can read these verses: Opium increases that which lacks limits / [...], awave [...], excels the delight and pleasures / black and melancholic. / And it fills the soul even more of how much it fits. / This is not worth the poison that your eyes distil / [...] lakes where my soul trembles and looks inverted / and my dreams flow / to be satisfied in those bitter voragines.

Inspiration of the work and meaning.
Rodin conducted numerous studies of the attitudes of human expressions, inspired by Greek allegories and mythologies. Its main sources of inspiration were the literary works of Ovidio, Dante and Baudelaire. Various myths and characters came to life through different materials, and gave them a very own interpretation.

Adonis was born from the Cypriot tree in which the gods converted his mother, and was the fruit of the incestuous union between Mirra and his father Ciniras, king of Pafos. Beautiful as the same love, he was raised by nymphs and when he was accompanied by Venus, a wild boar attacked him.

This work represents the desolating moment that Venus had to live in the face of the imminent death of her beloved. Agonizing, Adonis gives origin with his blood to the anemons, symbol of the Renaissance and that in the Medioevo are transformed into white roses that, dyed with blood, become