Focus on this artwork and explain the History.
Inspired by fragments of Greek art and incomplete work by Michelangelo, Rodin modeled a small study of a headless, seated woman. Following a scandal in 1877 when Rodin was wrongly accused of casting The Age of Bronze from life, the artist usually preferred to make sculptures that were smaller than life. Rodin's model was one of his favorites, Anna Abruzzesi, one of a pair of sisters he often used. Art critic Georges Grappe dated the sculpture to 1889 and stated without providing a source that it was a study for The Gates of Hell.In 1904, Rodin's assistant Henri Lebossé created an enlarged plaster version of the work using a machine invented by Achille Collas. This monumental work was displayed as A Figure at the 1905 Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. At that time, the sculpture was informally known by Rodin's friends and workers as Abruzzesi Seated after the woman who served as the model.It wasn't until 1914 that the work acquired its current name, Cybele, after the fertile Phrygian mother goddess. A bronze cast of the enlarged version was exhibited as Cybele at an exhibition at Grosvenor House in London that year. The ample figure of the sculpture may have suggested the title to Rodin.
Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts Michelangelo The Age of Bronze Phrygia The Gates of Hell Achille Collas Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts mother goddess Grosvenor House Cybele