Editing Auguste Rodin (section)

===''The Burghers of Calais''===
{{main|The Burghers of Calais}}

[[File:The.burg.of.calais.london.arp.750pix.jpg|alt=See adjacent text.|thumb|left|''[[The Burghers of Calais]]'' (1884–ca. 1889) in [[Victoria Tower Gardens]], London, England]]
The town of Calais had contemplated a historical monument for decades when Rodin learned of the project. He pursued the commission, interested in the medieval motif and patriotic theme. The mayor of Calais was tempted to hire Rodin on the spot upon visiting his studio, and soon the memorial was approved, with Rodin as its architect. It would commemorate the six townspeople of Calais who offered their lives to save their fellow citizens.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Burghers of Calais {{!}} Victoria Tower Gardens |url=https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/victoria-tower-gardens/things-to-see-and-do/burghers-of-calais |access-date=9 May 2023 |website=The Royal Parks |language=en |archive-date=9 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509180024/https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/victoria-tower-gardens/things-to-see-and-do/burghers-of-calais |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the [[Hundred Years' War]], the army of [[King Edward III]] besieged Calais, and Edward ordered that the town's population be killed ''en masse''. He agreed to spare them if six of the principal citizens would come to him prepared to die, bareheaded and barefooted and with ropes around their necks. When they came, he ordered that they be executed, but pardoned them when his queen, [[Philippa of Hainault]], begged him to spare their lives. ''[[The Burghers of Calais]]'' depicts the men as they are leaving for the king's camp, carrying keys to the town's gates and citadel.<ref name="swedberg" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://resources.metmuseum.org/resources/metpublications/pdf/Auguste_Rodin_The_Burghers_of_Calais_A_Resource_for_Educators.pdf |title=AUGUSTE RODIN · THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS: A Resource for Educators |publisher=THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART |year=2000 |access-date=1 July 2023 |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729005308/http://resources.metmuseum.org/resources/metpublications/pdf/Auguste_Rodin_The_Burghers_of_Calais_A_Resource_for_Educators.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Rodin began the project in 1884, inspired by the chronicles of the siege by [[Jean Froissart]].<ref name="swedberg">{{cite journal|last=Swedberg|first=Richard|title=Auguste Rodin's ''The Burghers of Calais'': The Career of a Sculpture and its Appeal to Civic Heroism|journal=Theory, Culture & Society|volume=22|issue=2|pages=45–67|year=2005|doi=10.1177/0263276405051665|s2cid=145116141}}</ref> Though the town envisioned an [[allegorical]], heroic piece centered on Eustache de Saint-Pierre, the eldest of the six men, Rodin conceived the sculpture as a study in the varied and complex emotions under which all six men were laboring. One year into the commission, the Calais committee was not impressed with Rodin's progress. Rodin indicated his willingness to end the project rather than change his design to meet the committee's conservative expectations, but Calais said to continue.<ref name="swedberg" />

In 1889, ''The Burghers of Calais'' was first displayed to general acclaim. It is a bronze sculpture weighing {{convert|2|ST|kg|sigfig=4|spell=in}}, and its figures are {{convert|6.6|ft|m|abbr=on}} tall.<ref name="swedberg"/> The six men portrayed do not display a united, heroic front;<ref name="apollo">{{cite journal|author=Stocker, Mark|title=A simple sculptor or an apostle of perversion?|journal=Apollo|pages=94–97|volume=164|issue=537|date=November 2006}}</ref> rather, each is isolated from his brothers, individually deliberating and struggling with his expected fate. Rodin soon proposed that the monument's high pedestal be eliminated, wanting to move the sculpture to ground level so that viewers could "penetrate to the heart of the subject".<ref>Hale, 117.</ref> At ground level, the figures' positions lead the viewer around the work, and subtly suggest their common movement forward.<ref>Hale, 115</ref>

The committee was incensed by the untraditional proposal, but Rodin would not yield. In 1895, Calais succeeded in having ''Burghers'' displayed in their preferred form: the work was placed in front of a public garden on a high platform, surrounded by a cast-iron railing. Rodin had wanted it located near the town hall, where it would engage the public. Only after damage during the First World War, subsequent storage, and Rodin's death was the sculpture displayed as he had intended. It is one of Rodin's best-known and most acclaimed works.<ref name="swedberg"/>