The broken balance: Auguste Rodin and philosophical matrix of La Porte de l'Enfer

Abstract

The study tries to answer the questions opened up by the work of Auguste Rodin, La Porte de l'Enfer. It was inspired by earlier historical and literary sources among which Dante's Divine Comedy has to mentioned first, as it cannot be imagined without it. The study compares the structure of La Porte de l'Enfer with Ghiberti's masterpiece La Porta del Paradiso. The study concludes that the discussed Rodin's work is impossible to comprehend outside of the medieval philosophical context.