Page 33 - Studio International - February 1973

for example in the studies for the Burghers of Brancusi's purpose evidently is at odds with
Calais and the Balzac. Brancusi's student Rodin: where Rodin's intention in truncating
sculpture and early work in Paris demonstrates the figure is to call attention to the missing part,
at once a faithfulness to appearance and a firm, Brancusi's is the opposite — to concentrate what
taut, sure and naturalistic rendering of flesh that is there, to use the section to articulate the
is far from Rodinian. In addition, through central solid. In the two versions of Torment
choice or circumstance, or both, his favoured from 1907, for example, Brancusi can be seen
mode is the portrait bust. (In passing one notes progressively moving from an expressive to an
one characteristic Brancusi and Rodin did objective mode. In the first, the evocation of
share — the intrinsic modesty of their immature pain is created by the inclination of the head
work, the containment of ambition until, with against the right shoulder; the face itself is
The Age of Bronze and The Prayer, respectively, expressionless; one does not question the
the time came for a major statement: and one position of the right arm cut off at the shoulder:
wonders how far circumstance — the the shoulder, bunched up against the side of the
expectation that each had of earning a living jaw, is a sufficient expressive focus. But the
from their craft solely — had a hand in the lower part of the chest and the left forearm are
formation of their separate ambitions.) indeterminately realized, blurring the transition
It is generally assumed that Rodin's main between the sculpture and the point at which it
contribution to the emergence of 'the object' in meets the real world in a 'Rodinesque' fashion.
sculpture lay in the fragmentation and In the second version Brancusi removes the
truncation of the human body, and in exhibiting artiness and indecisiveness of this lower section
these intentionally dismembered figures and with a single clean cut, and the sculpture is
fragments as complete sculptures in themselves. instantly realized and transformed. There is no
There are several arguments that make me feeling that the body and left arm continue
doubtful whether this is a wholly accurate downwards, through the base — the effect that
proposition. In the first place, on Rodin's part, Brancusi was clearly guarding against in the
there is his own unsureness as to which of the first version. The upper part of the body now
vast accumulation of components stored in his reads as a compact block, its mass horizontal
studio were in themselves 'sculpture'. It is not against the diagonal axis of the neck and head.
that such of the fragments as have been cast and The proportions of each element, now clearly
exhibited are not enormously impressive; rather defined as shape, can be read against each other.
that one is suspicious of an evidently wilful and The latent geometry of the conception is
random mode of selection and presentation. affirmed; and in the process, strangely, the
Moreover the fragments, such as the justly communication of pathos is accentuated also.
celebrated Iris figures of 890—I, still read as Nor does the preciseness of realization interfere
signs for figures — indeed the evident purpose of with the emergent abstract structure of the
truncation, from the Walking Man on, was to piece : the axis through the protruding ears plays
increase figural expressiveness, to increase the against the axis through the shoulders. The nice
empathy of the spectator with the figure by balance of naturalism and abstract structure was
forcing him to 'read' with his own body the hard-won, and not again attempted by Brancusi.
missing parts of the sculpture. Seen purely as an The potential object-nature of Brancusi's
abstract shape, if it is possible to do so again early heads is evident not only through a
after making the figure reading, such a fragment backward reading of his later development, but
as the Flying Figure is a lump of no character, through their small size, not apparent from
order, or formal interest whatever. That Rodin reproduction; the detached heads of babies, for
recognized, and put to use, this element of example, would rest easily in the hand, and in
recognition as the sole factor in bringing order fact seem to invite this sort of response.
and expression out of sheer formlessness, is The clean horizontal section through
evidenced by the Great Head of Iris. However, Torment II also has the effect of precisely
here a new element of naturalism obtrudes indicating the inclination of the head from the
itself — 'truth' to nature in representation is vertical. The Sleeping Child (cast 1908, but
replaced by 'truth' to the material, clay, probably modelled in 1906) is again convincingly
presented in its essence as sheer passive inert complete in itself: the inclination of the head,
lump. finding a 'natural' base on the cheek, at once
I have mentioned that Brancusi's earliest conveys the subject with marvellous economy,
sculptures were largely portraits. We know that and makes any questioning of the existence
during his early years in Paris he continued to either of the rest of the child's body or of a
make life studies; so there are strong grounds conventional bust-type presentation,
for thinking that there were more than economic superfluous if not unthinkable.
reasons for favouring the head as subject. What The handling of the surface of this piece
must have appealed to Brancusi was the recalls Rodin, as does the surrounding and
(Above)
conventional and symmetrical containment of undefined volume of rough marble surrounding Brancusi
the portrait bust: and it was on the basis of this Sleep of 1908. The device evidently derives from Torment I 1907
conventional form that Rodin's example in such pieces of Rodin as Thought and L'Aurore, Bronze 36.2 cm high
fragmenting the figure was useful to him, for in which an exactly defined head emerges from a (Below)
example in the asymmetrical reduction of the great lump of uncut marble. Rodin himself in Brancusi
Torment II 1907
limits of the conventional form. Here these sculptures was quoting from Bronze 29.9 cm high
67