I listed some of my favourite art works and a song that reminds me of them- last week I spoke about Titian's 'Bacchus and Ariadne' coupled with Aquilo's 'You There' both stunning art worke, man I love them, so today is following on from that, but instead of Bacchus, we got burghers.
Burghers, yeah I haven't spelt it wrong. Not what you get from Macdonalds, but what you get from the Met (lol it's not in the Met that was just for stylistic emphatic effect; the copy I saw was in France at the Rodin museum)
The Burghers of Calais is a sculpture created by Auguste Rodin in 1884-1889. When I see an article, a web page, a description of somebody talking about art, and their opening line is the bog standard title, artist and date- what I've just given you- I'm turned off instantaneously. Fear not, I am not going to bore you, JUST because it is a sculpture and not a film or a playlist. I promise.
I came across this when at school. I studied History of Art at A Level, and was introduced to this about half way through my first year of sixth form as I was assigned it by teacher to study and come up with a presentation to give to the class. So far so good. I know usually at school, projects have the tendency to be more dull than exciting and I was feeling a bit Lana summertime sadness about the whole thing. But Rodin never disappoints.
I googled the sculpture first of all, as anyone would, to see what it looks like. Dark bronze, there was something inherently sad about it all, but the frozen movement of the figures swayed more towards a living thing than a drab-dross take it or leave it. I was intrigued.
In 1347, there was a battle,The Battle of Crecy, which formed part of the 100 years war (effort). Phillip VI of France who ruled Calais was having a slight problem, as Britain's Edward III was holding him and his city under siege. No food, no water forced Philip into an embarassing 'ok you win'. However this was far from over. Ed then decided to give him a hard time, bc y not, and said that he would only lift the siege if 6 significant leaders came forward to be executed. So if Edward III was Kim Jong Un and Philip was David Cameron, the 6 would most likely be George Osbourne, Michael Gove, Harry Styles, Louis Payne, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson (haha)
However all was not lost. Phillippa of Hainult, Edward's wife, was preggers, and said to him that it would be a bad omen for their unborn child (I'm guessing she fancied one of the burghers and hoped to elope away from her bitchy husband)- so they didn't die. BUT what Rodin captures is not the moment after of heroic triumph- it's the precedent to it of their heroic bravery, dealing with the prospect of imminent death.
What do you think you would do if I told you that in the next 10 minutes you were going to die? Not sure? Yeah, neither. I have no idea what I would do, how I would feel or who I would tell, talk to; would I even do anything? What Rodin pumps through the whole of this piece is exactly that, the human dubiousness, the unpredictability of human reaction, and having to deal with the worst in the here and now. Deep.
But how does he do this? Well, we can see the varying emotional responses of the men. Eustache de Saint Pierre was the oldest and the first to volunteer. He is stoic, brave, but also there's something about his face that he's clearly thinking 'holy shit'. And that is what is so great about this, that I think as a 21st century viewer we are really attracted, the psychological thought processes under something that could just appear pretty one dimensional, yet it's dimension other that is where the interest and satisfaction lies.
Unlike Eustache, Andreiu de Wiessant was one of the younger burghers- crouched down, quite similar to Munch's 'The Scream' he wails, he is distraught, and he is crapping himself (not literally). It's really quite powerful, and reminds me of the blood curdling, thank fully few, moments in your life when you hear other people in pain- the screams and the wails that are from so deep within- like the time my Dad had an appendicitis and he was lying on the staircase, screaming in pain- Rodin draws massive pathos for the guy, and makes the sculpture itself very emotional, especially contrasting with the strength of Eustache and Jean D'Aire (who holds the keys to the city).
Their hands are feet are bigger compared to the rest of their bodies scale wise, so that it looks in proportion from below, yet is also testament to having to deal with the prospect of imminent death, as if death has a physical effect on you, it becomes part of you before it totally becomes you.
I know that it kinda seems like this whole sculpture is about death, imminent death, not dying but almost dying etc etc, but it's just so much more than that. It's about human individualism- Rodin wasn't glorifying these men, which is what the commissioners wanted him to do and so ditched the sculpture when he presented it to them. Rodin exploits their humanistic side, and says yeah these men went through possibly the worst mental experience one will ever have to go through, and this is what it looks like, so how does that make you feel viewer? It's like if someone made a sculpture of David Cameron during his election campaign- tired, persistent and valiant, but still tired- I think Dave would rather a sculpture of him after this year's election- victorious and smug.
Rodin challenges, he defies, and that's what's so cool about this sculpture and why I love it so much. I hope you like it too, and the song I chose with it is Keaton Henson's 'Sweetheart heart what have you done to us?'
So I hope that when you next here the word 'burgers', you'll think a little bit further along the thought train than macdonalds.
