Saint John the Baptist Preaching

The model for this work was an Italian farmer. Rodin recognized the farmer's strong bearing and physique, and his artless mystical quality when he came to visit Rodin's studio. As soon as Rodin saw this man he thought of St. John the Baptist. The farmer took off his clothes and stood on the model dais "With his face raced, his upper body straight and proud and his two legs spread like a compass." When Rodin saw this firm pose he decided on the theme of "Walking." The Walking Man made in the process of the creation of this work is a standing figure that consists solely of a torso and legs. Both feet are on the ground and the movement of his legs "spread like a compass" show the slight shift caught in a single moment of time. If a photograph was taken of a single instant of the movement of a walking model, we would see that when the back foot is firmly on the ground, the front foot would not yet be fully on the ground, and vice versa. This figure of St. John the Baptist has both feet firmly planted on the ground. No such moment exists when a person is actually walking. However Rodin states "It is the artist who speaks the truth and the photograph that lies. This is because there is no moment when time is actually stopped." (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.127)