Sculpture Collection Auguste Rodin Mercury Standing French, 1840-1917 This figure is related to the Mercure Messager, a figure which appears in the Gates of Hell, and to the monument to the patriot Sarmiento, which dates from about 1895. "Rodin was commissioned by the Argentine Republic to make a monument to the patriot Sarmiento. They wanted him represented as a Titan hurling down a huge rock to illustrate his own simile between his book - El Facundo - and a rock on the Andes as a destructive factor of ignorance in the Republic. But Rodin designed a marble base of the bronze figure of Sarmiento which shows the sun god vanquishing the crawling snakes of error and ignorance. This is 2.50 metres high and 2.25 metres in breadth, and shows in high relief the figure of Mecure debout, with outstretched arms, treading on snakes and serpents.” - Mr. John L. Tancock (letter of March 22, 1967) |
  
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