Several sculptures by the master sculptor Auguste Rodin moved me when I visited the Musée des Beaux Arts of Montreal with Amber.
Jesus and Mary Magdalene – the way she supported his head on her arm.
Damned Women (for the Gates of Hell) – the way one leans into the other.
The Hand of God – the tenderness of the massive hand as it holds the unveiled couple in the block of marble
The Thinker (or Dante Alighieri sitting atop the Gates of Hell)
Victor Hugo and his Muse
The Head of John the Baptist
But the one that transfixed me for the longest time was The Defense or The Call to Arms. It is a female angel figure above a surprised, hopeful, yet bewildered looking man reaching for his sword.
The angel is very striking in her posture with her arms outstretched in fists, but the expression on her face is what captured me the most. She is in agony, fighting back tears. She is desperate and almost unreachable. She is forceful and quivering. She is howling and strained.
