You know what I think about most when I look at Rodin's "The Thinker"? How uncomfortable he must have been. He's sitting there, on a rock, naked, with his chin resting very uncomfortably on his hand which I'm sure would've fallen asleep very quickly in that position. He's leaning so far forward on the rock that he had to have either been attached to it, or constantly employing his abdominal muscles to keep himself from falling forward. Then, the rock that his feet are on is uneven and therefore severely uncomforable, and it seems as though he's trying to use his toes to help his abs keep him from falling off of his rock. When you're thinking about something as hard as he apparently is supposed to seem, would you choose that pose or that perch? I wouldn't. Maybe he's punishing himself. Maybe that rock/seat was really close to the edge of a cliff and he was trying to decide whether to stay or jump. Maybe he was hiding from someone, and this rock was the only place he could find, and that would explain why he settled for its uncomfortable-ness. Who knows.
Wikipedia says
"It depicts a man in sober
meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle....
The Thinker was originally meant to depict
Dante in front of the Gates of
Hell,
pondering his great poem. (In the final sculpture, a miniature of the
statue sits atop the gates, pondering the hellish fate of those beneath
him.)" I guess when you're thinking about such serious things, your posture doesn't matter. It's a beautiful sculpture, either way.
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