Wednesday, 22 May 2024

Rodin and Monkey Business in Mons!

Culture, Art and Patrimoine:

The CAP in Mons is fun

In modern setting by main square

It features RODIN’s statues there

 

With umpteen sketches finely drawn;

Brief stay in Brussels, in France born

Youthful, optimistic, poor,

He fled the Franco-Prussian War.

 

His tutor Carrier-Belleuse

Commissioned Rodin on the Bourse;

He sojourned in small Ixelles flat

Commemorated in wall plaque.

 

Skilled artist of the human form

His life-like sculptured oeuvres seem warm

True shades of Michelangelo

Renaissance Man in movements slow…

 

The Thinker stands out, enigmatic

Six burghers of Calais – dramatic

Ugolino*, who his kids devours,

Is worked in stone and overpowers…

 

Torsos in assorted sizes …

A monk, with naked girl, surprises!

Detailed drawings in finesse

His draughtsmanship the very best.

 

Café later in main square

Sunshine: crowds enjoy the fair;

Before I leave, must not forget

To stroke bronze monkey** – Mons’s pet!


(c) Poet in the woods  2024



Ugolino by Rodin

* See Canto 33 of Dante's Inferno


** Stroking the monkey's head  with your left hand is said to bring good luck - since 1843!

 

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