The Age of Bronze

A plaster cast of this work entitled The Vanquished was displayed in the 1877 Cercle Artistique in Brussels, but later this work was given the name of Awakening or Man of the First Ages. After the golden and silver ages of the gods, the first pulsating movements of mankind in the bronze age is expressed in the awakening form of this young man. Paul Gsell saw this statue in Rodin's home in Meudon and said "The legs of this just awakened man have no strength and are still slack. But as the viewer looks up the body, we can see how clearly that form is defined. .... The first arousing movement of a person seen in the transformation from a half sleeping state to that of life." (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.126)