Page 44 - Studio International - July/August 1967

Right Rodin encouraging the sculptor bogged down in his work
Detail Walking Man.
`to create accidents,' and this idea has always appealed
Below, Right to him in his own preliminary studies or maquettes. The
Detail Michelangelo longer stump of the torso's right leg suggested to Moore
Study of a Nude Youth. that originally the vertical armature passed through it.
British Museum.
Once during our examinations of the Walking Man he
expressed the opinion that the hole below the right
shoulder blade might have been caused by the removal
of an an external armature which had previously entered
at that point. The many ragged cracks in the abdominal
area he felt were caused not by faulty bronze casting (as
was the case with small holes in the Petit Palais torso
cast), or by the plaster cast, but derived from the drying
of the clay or wax. (He thinks Rodin, like Michelangelo,
may have used a clay and wax mixture.) He has experi-
enced similar cracks in his own wax and clay maquettes
which if not kept moist tend to shrink on the armature.
Michelangelo's maquettes show cracking similar to
Rodin's torso. Rodin undoubtedly made a piece-mould
of his already battered clay torso and then cast it in
bronze, preserving the original faults and the seams of
the mould and then did not restore or chase the bronze
casting defects. The deep green patina of the Petit
Palais bronze further heightens its resemblance to an
ancient weathered bronze. Henry Moore's own cast does
not have the same crispness of the roughened areas and
faults as that of the Petit Palais torso, and he feels that
Rodin may have taken a plaster cast from this old
bronze (a surmoulage), or else intentionally softened the
raggedness to reduce the discrepancy with the treatment
of the legs. On several occasions Moore pointed out that
the legs and torso of the Walking Man were not only
different in style, but that two male models (one live,
one from art) having different proportions (as seen in
the pelvic-thigh region) probably served the artist at
different times. When the full scale John the Baptist was
made these discrepancies were eliminated. The legs of the
Walking Man he is sure were made in one campaign and
probably stood with their armatures joined at the top or
hip area on the same base that we see today. (To have
kept the legs separate from each other strikes Moore as
unthinkable.) Their junction with the torso around 1900
was done in plaster, roughly and hastily, with no attempt
to model new buttocks or conceal the raw adhesion.
Because they supposed an erect, motionless figure, the
stumps of the original torso were cut away.
sought to make those stumps look like a ruin or study There are significant differences between the angle of
by Michelangelo whose figural studies show markedly the torso, positioning of the feet and width of the
similar treatment. He also pointed out that the deltoid forked stance in the Walking Man and John the Baptist.
muscles of the back had not been sufficiently built up to Moore argues that these differences could be accounted
support the arms. (If arms had existed they would not for by shifting from the smaller to the larger scale, and
have been raised over the head, which seems to discount the addition of arms and head which he feels would have
the torso as a ruin of a sculpture of Joshua, who would encouraged greater closure of the stance and a more
have had this identifying gesture.) The big indentation frontal positioning of the torso. The slightly inclined
in the torso's right pectoral he sees as having been caused pose of the figure in the Michelangelo drawing in the
by a deliberate editing or 'accident' such as Rodin's British Museum he suspects may have inspired Rodin to
pounding the clay with a flat tool, but not cutting it. change the original upright position of the torso to one
Moore points out that the front of the torso was once in which it leaned forward and was more in accord with
highly finished, but that Rodin then gouged into the the spread of the legs.
chest with his fingers or a tool. Unlike the Rondanini There are paradoxes about the Walking Man which
Pieta, the torso of the Walking Man is repairable. He Moore pointed out. As one changes the viewing angle,
recalled that as a student he had read somewhere of the figure's weight seems to shift forward or backwards,