El pensador

The Thinker was designed to be part of the center archway (called a tympanum) of The Gates of Hell, a giant doorway for a museum of decorative arts in Paris. Rodin’s starting point for this commissioned work was the epic poem Inferno, written by the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri. 

Rodin explicó más tarde su inspiración para El Pensador:

In days long gone by, I conceived of the idea of the Gates of Hell. Before the door, seated on a rock, Dante, thinking of the plan of his poem … This project was not realized. Thin, ascetic Dante separated from the whole would have been without meaning. Guided by my first impression, I conceived of another thinker, a naked man, seated upon a rock, his feet drawn up under him, his fist against his teeth, he dreams. The fertile thought slowly elaborates itself within his brain. He is no longer dreamer, he is creator.

Rodin nunca dijo en qué está pensando su figura, pero sí expresó sus pensamientos sobre su creación poco antes de su muerte:

What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes.

El sujeto de la escultura de Rodin está consumido por sus pensamientos. El acto de pensar le exige utilizar no sólo su mente, sino todo su cuerpo.

tags: significado, poder, reflexión, proceso del artista