back from the gates of hell ... i.e. the Rodin exhibition at the Royal Academy.  Among the many things I learned yesterday:

* Rodin re-used his clay sculptures in different combinations and variations -- so, for example, the two most famous works, the thinker and the kiss, both originated as minor parts of "the gates of hell" and then took on a life of their own. In other cases, unrelated figures were combined to create completely different stories ...  A cut and paste method that would today be called postmodern.

* He used a "profile technique", checking the contours of the posed model from all angles and even from above, to make sure the 3D rendition is "right" from all angles. Sounds a lot like Electron Microscopy image reconstruction, 100 years earlier. And the effect is spectacular, when you walk round the sculptures.

* I also discovered that many of the memorable scenes of the 1988 movie Camille Claudel:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0094828/

were actually based on less known sculptures. I had scenes of the movie jumping at me from all corners. Will have to watch the movie again ...

Ah, and here are the gates of hell (also linked to a memorable scene in the movie, as Camille (Isabel Adjani) poses as the middle one of the three figures on the top:

source:

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/rodin/the-gates-of-hell-and-the-ki...