Hand of God

Auguste Rodin

National Gallery of Art

A hand cupping two nude people, which are significantly smaller in scale than the hand, rises from a rectangular base in this oatmeal-colored, free-standing plaster sculpture. The roughly textured base is angled away from us to our right, so we look into the hand holding the intertwined people with the well-defined thumb to our right. The woman’s body is curled in a U shape, with the back of her shoulders facing us. The man rests his head against her breast as they kiss, and he wraps both arms up around her head. His legs extend to our right, his knees bent and pressed together. His right hip nestles in the curve of the thumb. The area around the people is roughly textured while the hand and most of their bodies are polished smooth. The artist inscribed his name in the lower right corner of the base, “A Rodin.”