Titans, Support for a Vase (c. 1877): Art, History and Details

Titans, Support for a Vase (c. 1877) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917); Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (French, 1824–1887).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

During his lifetime and afterward, Auguste Rodin was viewed as the modern equivalent to Michelangelo. Rodin worked against the prevailing styles of his time and may have seen parallels between his own struggles and Michelangelo’s reputation in the 1800s as a suffering genius. In 1875 Rodin went to Italy to study Renaissance art, specifically works by Michelangelo. The twisting titans (giants) on this pedestal base are directly inspired by Michelangelo’s ignudi (male nudes) on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Rodin did not directly copy the poses but translated the energy and movement of the nudes into new, three-dimensional forms.

Object facts

• Title: Titans, Support for a Vase
• Date: c. 1877
• Creator attribution: Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917); Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (French, 1824–1887)
• Culture: France, made at Choisy le Roi, 19th century
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: glazed earthenware
• Dimensions: Overall: 37.5 x 38.1 x 38.1 cm (14 3/4 x 15 x 15 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1995.71

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “The Cleveland Museum of Art Acquires Major Works,” December 20, 1995, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 07, September 1996
• Fergonzi, Flavio. Rodin and Michelangelo: A Study in Artistic Inspiration. Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1997.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.