Rodin smiled. “Such a classification would not be wanting in ingenuity,” he said, “and it would be much more just than that which divides the colorists from the draughtsmen.
Triton and Nereid
By Rodin
Photograph reproduced by permission of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Caryatid
By Rodin
Photograph reproduced by permission of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
“However, because of the complexity of art, or rather of the human souls who take art for a language, all classification runs the risk of being futile. So Rembrandt is often a sublime poet and Raphael often a vigorous realist.
“Let us force ourselves to understand the masters—let us love them—let us go to them for inspiration; but let us refrain from labelling them like drugs in a chemist’s shop.”
THE BATHER
By Rodin