Iris, Messenger of the Gods (Another Voice, Called Iris)

This bronze is derived from Rodin’s unrealized second project for a monument to the writer Victor Hugo. Rodin originally conceived the figure as a winged personification of glory that would float above the author’s head. In his earliest study for it, the artist retained the head and left arm, though he eliminated them after an initial exhibition. By removing them and repositioning the legs into their current confrontational pose, he erases any sense of individualism in favor of anonymous carnality. The metaphoric title adds another layer of provocation to the composition, suggesting that the figure’s sexual organ is now her means of verbal communication. A cast of this work once owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was considered too bold for exhibition during the early twentieth century.