“To compare me with Rembrandt, what sacrilege!” Rodin cried quickly. “To Rembrandt, the Colossus of art! Think of it, my friend! Let us bow before Rembrandt, and never set any one beside him!
“But you have concluded justly in observing in my works the stirrings of the soul towards that kingdom, perhaps chimerical, of unlimited truth and liberty. There, indeed, is the mystery that moves me.” A moment later he asked: “Are you convinced now that art is a kind of religion?”
“Yes,” I answered.
Then he added, with some malice: “It is very necessary to remember, however, that the first commandment of this religion, for those who wish to practise it, is to know how to model a torso, an arm, or a leg!”
Bust of Madame Morla Vicuna
By Rodin
CHAPTER X
PHIDIAS AND MICHAEL ANGELO
One Saturday evening Rodin said to me, “Come and see me to-morrow morning at Meudon. We will talk of Phidias and of Michael Angelo, and I will model statuettes for you on the principles of both. In that way you will quickly grasp the essential differences of the two inspirations, or, to express it better, the opposed characteristics which divide them.”
Phidias and Michael Angelo judged and commented upon by Rodin! It is easy to imagine that I was exact to the hour of our meeting.
The Master sat down before a marble table and clay was brought to him. It was winter, and as the great atelier was unheated, I was afraid that he might take cold. But the attendant to whom I suggested this smiled as he answered, “Never, when he works.”