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Myth of the sculptor. Mythical sculptors
Symposium
Tuesday, June 16 and Wednesday, June 17, 2026, 9:30 am - 5:30 pm
Paris, musée Rodin, Léonce Bénédite auditorium
Live online broadcast
Headed by Chloé Ariot, Chief Heritage Curator, Musée Rodin, and Marc Bormand, Senior Heritage Curator, Medieval and Renaissance Italian Sculpture, Musée du Louvre, curators of the exhibition.
This symposium is organized to coincide with the exhibition “Michel-Ange Rodin. Corps vivants”, in partnership with the Department of Museum Studies and Research Support, Musée du Louvre.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, known as Michelangelo (1475–1564) and Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) occupy essential– or rather, central– places in the history of Western sculpture. Both are regarded as geniuses, towering artists who have come to embody the figure of the sculptor in their respective eras, and who have, without question, left an echo that has since continued to grow louder.
Artistic renown is well studied today, particularly since Ernst Kris and Otto Kurz’s foundational 1934 work, The Legend of the Artist, which analyses how the myth of the artist is constructed, ranging from half-mad autodidacts to demigods of innate talent. Artist biographies became fashionable in the Renaissance, inspired by classical antiquity, and, in particular, by Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, published in 1550 and again in 1568, which combined the real and the imaginary, based on the legends of the saints. With the rise of Romanticism in the 19th century came the now well-established figure of the solitary genius, marginalised and misunderstood yet driven by visionary inspiration. Across the ages, artists have thus been portrayed as endowed with divine genius. Michelangelo, after all, was known as Il Divino (‘the divine one’) by his contemporaries, while Rodin’s detractors often derisively compared him to God the Father.
The mythical dimensions of Michelangelo and Rodin raise another question. These two sculptors –one of whom was also a renowned painter, architect, and poet, and the other a celebrated draughtsman–have gradually been identified in the collective imagination as two embodiments of the sculptor, to the detriment of their other talents. Is the power of their sculpted works alone sufficient to explain this oversimplification? Or does the figure of the sculptor conceal a particular myth-generating force? In short, is there a distinctive “myth of the sculptor”?
Research committee and coordination
Musée du Louvre
- Marc Bormand, Chief Curator, Italian sculptures of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Department of Sculptures, curator of the exhibition
- Philippe Cordez, Deputy Director of Museum Studies and Research Support, Head of the Research Support Department
- Julie Botte, Project Coordinator, Directorate of Museum Studies and Research Support, Research Support Department
Musée Rodin
- Amélie Simier, Director of Musée Rodin
- Chloé Ariot, Chief Curator in charge of the Sculpture Collection, Curator of the exhibition
- Emilia Philippot, Senior Curator, Head of Curatorial Affairs
- Véronique Mattiussi, Head of the Research department
- Franck Joubin, Researcher, Conference Coordinator
Program
TUESDAY JUNE 16, 2026
09h30Opening keynote address Amélie Simier, Director Musée Rodin 09h45Introduction by the curators Chloé Ariot, Chief Curator in charge of the Sculpture Collection, Musée Rodin and Marc Bormand, Chief Curator, Italian sculptures of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Department of Sculptures, Musée du Louvre Session 1 : The legendary figure of the sculptorModeration : Philippe Cordez, Deputy Director of the Department of Museum Studies and Research Support, Head of Research Support Division, Musée du Louvre 10h15Le mythe du Golem, un éloge du pouvoir démiurgique de la sculpture Ada Ackerman, Research fellow, CNRS
10h45Breathing Stone: Sculptural Pneumology and Demiurgic Mania in Callistratus’ Ecphraseis Anna Athanasopoulou, BOF Junior Postdoctoral Fellow, Ghent University 11h15Discussion and break 11h30La part de la cécité dans la constitution du mythe du sculpteur Olivier Chiquet, Associate Professor in Italian Studies, Université de Lorraine | 12h00
Gina Stamm, Associate Professor in French, Department of Modern Languages & Classics, The University of Alabama 12h30Discussion and lunch break
Session 2 : Building one's own legendModeration : Cécilie Champy-Vinas, Cécilie Champy-Vinas, Chief Heritage Curator, Director of the musée Zadkine, Paris 14h30Filarete: a modern “Greek” Sculptor Thodoris Koutsogiannis, Chief Curator of the Hellenic Parliament Art Collection, Athens 15h30Discussion and break 15h00« Se sculpter soi-même » : Autoportrait et construction du mythe du sculpteur de Pigalle à Canova (1770-1830) Sophie Recordier, Ph.D. candidate, Sorbonne Université, Paris 15h45In the Name of the Sculptor: Marino Marini, Self-Mythmaking, and Transnational Archaism in the Mid-Twentieth Century Gianmarco Russo, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Scuola Normale et adjunct professor in Art History at the University of Pisa
16h15La mort à l’œuvre : le travail et la virilité, la solitude et le génie : mythes et représentations des sculpteurs à Paris et à Bruxelles (1880-1920) Léa Jaurégui, Ph.D. candidate, École du Louvre, Paris and Université libre de Bruxelles 16h45Discussion and end of the first day |
WEDNESDAY JUNE 17, 2026
09h15Welcome Session 3 : Rivaling MichelangeloModeration : Guillaume Cassegrain, Professor of early modern art history, Université Grenoble Alpes 09h30Construire le mythe, affronter l’échec : Michel-Ange de Bologne (1508) à Rome (1564) Sefy Hendler, Professor of early modern art history, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne 10h00Ecce Corpus Michelangeli. Sur quelques exemples de dévotion artistique à la Renaissance Jérémie Koering, Professor of early modern art history, University of Fribourg 10h30“…havendo una ambitione estrema…” Giambologna and Michelangelo Claudia Kryza-Gersch, Ph.D, Curator of Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden 11h00Discussion and break Session 4 : Beyond the materialModeration : Jean-Marie Gallais, Curator, Pinault Collection 11h30Edmonia « wildfire» Lewis. Sous la peau du marbre un « feu de fôret » Barbara Musetti, Ph.D in Art History and Lecturer at the École du Louvre, Paris | 12h00
Duccio Nobili, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Scuola Normale, Pisa 12h30Discussion and lunch break
Session 5 : Writing about the sculptorModeration : Sara Vitacca, Associate Professor of contemporary art history, Université Marie et Louis Pasteur, Besançon 14h30« Mademoiselle Camille Claudel » : une vie d’artiste entre histoire et légende Cécile Bertran, Chief Heritage Curator, Director of the Musée Camille Claudel, Nogent-sur-Seine 15h00Picasso sculpteur : le mystère et sa légende Brigitte Léal, Honorary Senior Heritage Curator 16h00De Gislebertus d’Autun au Gilbert du Pape des Escargots d’Henri Vincenot : l’idée de resurgissement dans la sculpture bourguignonne Sophie Jugie, Senior Heritage Curator, Deputy to the Deputy Director for Museum Policy, French Museums Service, Directorate-General for Architecture and Heritage 16h30Discussion and end of the second day |
Visuel : Jacques-Ernest Bulloz, The Hand of God by Auguste Rodin, after 1918, toned gelatin silver print, Paris, Musée Rodin © musée Rodin - photo Jean de Calan
Exhibition(s) location(s)
Musée Rodin
Léonce Bénédite Auditorium
21, boulevard des Invalides
75007 Paris
Date(s)
Tuesday, June 16 and Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Opening times
9:30 am - 5:30 pm
Price(s)
- Free entry (no prior reservation required), subject to availability
- Accessible to people with reduced mobility
- Auditorium opens 15 minutes before the event begins
Accessibility
- Mobilité réduite
Additional information
FOLLOW ONLINE
Registration for the online broadcast on Zoom is mandatory. A confirmation message along with login details will be sent to you by email.
contact
Contact us at the following address : colloques@musee-rodin.fr
THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition “Michelangelo Rodin. Living Bodies” is organized by the Musée du Louver, with the exceptional collaboration of the Musée Rodin.
Until July 20, 2026
L'EXPOSITION
L'exposition « Michel-Ange Rodin. Corps vivants » est organisée par le musée du Louvre, avec la collaboration exceptionnelle du musée Rodin.
Jusqu'au 20 juillet 2026
Download
- Program(pdf, 10259.8 ko)
