" The work will have that simplicity that is difficult to find when you look for it; that simplicity where everything is harmonious, where everything seems easy, and which in art, is the beginning and the end... Simplicity fixes the essential. "
Considered the father of modern sculpture, Auguste Rodin is an innovator in the highly codified world of statuary. The works of Dante, Baudelaire, and Michelangelo are a great source of inspiration for him. His works, by their completed form which remains caught in a partially-sided block, are reminiscent of the sculptures of Michelangelo. Rodin's figures enjoy freedom and movement, as even the fragments become works in their own right. An admirer of the antique, he worked in marble and was assisted by many practitioners, including Camille Claudel and Antoine Bourdelle. The art of Rodin, naturalistic, monumental, and geared towards the expression of movement, is seen as a break between tradition and modernity.