The Hand of God

Auguste Rodin

original model before 1895, carved ca. 1907 · Marble · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Rodin presents the inchoate figures of Adam and Eve cradled in God’s hand. The composition is an homage to his revered "master" Michelangelo, the Renaissance artist whose unfinished figures materializing out of rough stone symbolize the process of artistic creation. In this work, Rodin boldly equates the generative hand of God with the ingenious hand of the sculptor. When the collector B. Gerald Cantor saw The Hand of God at the Met in 1945, it initiated what has been called a "magnificent obsession." Cantor’s support of scholarship and his unparalleled gifts to American and French museums helped to revitalize interest in Rodin in the second half of the twentieth century.

Artist

Auguste Rodin

Date

original model before 1895, carved ca. 1907

Medium

Marble

Culture

French

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Edward D. Adams, 1908