The Thinker - Detroit, MI
N 42° 21.547 W 083° 03.918
17T E 329918 N 4691714
A replica of the famous sculpture The Thinker found in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan.
Waymark Code: WM16XG3
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 10/24/2022
Views: 2
The Thinker was conceived as representing Dante, the central figure of Rodin’s monumental
The Gates of Hell. Rodin considered this figure in broad universal terms to symbolize the powerful internal struggle of the creative human mind. Rodin soon designed
The Thinker as an independent sculpture. In 1904 he displayed the first over-life-size enlargement at the Paris Salon, where Dr. Max Linde, a German collector, acquired cast no. 3. In 1922 Horace Rackham purchased this cast from Dr. Linde and donated it to the museum, where it is placed at the Woodward Avenue entrance.-
DIA
The Thinker was initially named
The Poet (French: Le Poète), and was part of a large commission begun in 1880 for a doorway surround called
The Gates of Hell. Rodin based this on the early 14th century poem
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, and most of the figures in the work represented the main characters in the poem with
The Thinker at the center of the composition over the doorway and somewhat larger than most of the other figures. Some critics believe that it was originally intended to depict Dante at the gates of Hell, pondering his great poem. Other critics reject that theory, pointing out that the figure is naked while Dante is fully clothed throughout his poem, and that the sculpture's physique does not correspond to Dante's effete figure. The sculpture is nude, as Rodin wanted a heroic figure in the tradition of Michelangelo, to represent intellect as well as poetry. Other critics came to see the sculpture as a self-portrait. -
The Thinker