The Gates of Hell

One of the most fascinating secrets is that the Gates were never cast in bronze during Rodin's lifetime. He worked on them for 37 years, adding, removing, and modifying figures until his death in 1917. The example we see today is a posthumous reconstruction based on his plaster models, highlighting the perpetually unfinished nature of his vision. Rodin refused to deliver it, considering it his personal laboratory. Another secret lies in the iconographic recycling. World-famous works like "The Kiss" were initially part of the Gates (representing Paolo and Francesca). However, Rodin judged that the happiness and tenderness of The Kiss clashed with the atmosphere of general torment. He therefore removed it to make it a work in its own right, proving his ability to dissociate the part from the whole to maximize emotional impact. There is a "trade secret" regarding the relief. To achieve this dizzying depth, Rodin used figures almost entirely detached from the background, fixed by invisible metal armatures. This technique allowed direct interaction with the museum's actual light, creating cast shadows that change according to the time of day, making the damned more or less present depending on the lighting. The group of "The Three Shades" at the top is actually three times the same figure, rotated at different angles. This bold repetition process, totally revolutionary for the time, shows Rodin's modernity as he did not hesitate to use series and duplication to reinforce the effect of mass and fatality. The three hands pointing downward point to the invisible inscription taken from Dante: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here". Finally, Rodin once considered adding figures in real motion, moved by a mechanism, to accentuate the horror of Hell. Although this project did not come to fruition, it demonstrates his desire to go beyond the physical limits of traditional sculpture to achieve a form of total art, foreshadowing certain contemporary installations.