Rodin Sculpture Garden - Facing The Gates of Hell
Photo: Emw, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
A stop on Stanford University Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.
Walk the gravel paths among the cypress trees and you meet about 20 monumental bronzes by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. The garden opened in 1985, guided by Stanford art historian Albert Elsen and collectors Iris and B. Gerald Cantor, who later gave Stanford dozens of Rodin works. It is open around the clock.
The centerpiece, at the garden's east end, is The Gates of Hell. Rodin worked on this huge doorway, inspired by Dante's Inferno, from 1880 until about 1900, and it was never cast in bronze during his lifetime. Stanford's cast was poured in 1981 using the lost-wax method Rodin favored. Look closely and you will find a crowd of twisting, tumbling figures, the Three Shades standing on top, and a seated man above the doors who later became famous on his own as The Thinker.
Nearby stand Adam, Eve and The Walking Man. Take your time and circle each one; these figures change a lot as you move around them.
Getting here: Walk back south about 400 meters, past the museum, to the sculpture garden beside it.
Did you know?: Stanford owns about 200 works by Rodin, the largest Rodin collection outside Paris except for one in Mexico City.
Photo op: Stand back on the path facing the Gates so the whole doorway fits, then zoom in on The Thinker above the doors.
More on Wikipedia: The Gates of Hell · Auguste Rodin · The Thinker · B. Gerald Cantor
Stops on this tour
- The Oval and Palm Drive - A Grand Front Door
- Bing Concert Hall - Every Seat Close to the Music
- Cantor Arts Center - A Museum Born of Grief
- Arizona Cactus Garden - A House That Never Was
- Rodin Sculpture Garden - Facing The Gates of Hell
- Engineering Quad - Where Ideas Get Built
- Memorial Church - Gold, Glass and a Fallen Spire
- White Plaza - The Claw and Campus Life
- Hoover Tower - A Library Standing on End
- Main Quad and Memorial Court - Where It All Began