American History

1.The Thinker is a sculpture of bronze and marble created by Auguste Rodin in 1902. Although it is independent and self-sufficient, the sculpture was designed as a part of The Gates of Hell, a portal that depicts the characters of  Dante Alighieris epic poem Divine Comedy. The Thinker represents the Poet, or Dante himself, sitting in front of the Gates of Hell and pondering poem. Auguste Rodin worked on The Gates of Hell for ten years total.
2.Reflection. The Thinker depicts a meditating man, whose mental concentration is greasy associated with considerable physical effort. His pose is closed, his lips are compressed and his eyes, although open, look somewhere inside his own soul, so the man doesnt seem to pay attention to what is happening around him. His muscles are so tense that it seems like the man is doing hard physical work. Therefore, every part of his body is taking part in the act of contemplation.
This work always attracted me. When I look at the Thinker, I feel we are similar in certain sense, as everyone has their small inner Thinker, a hard-working mechanism that ties together logic and intuition and produces great ideas. To me, the sculpture represents the height and depth of human thought, and it always reminds me  that in order to reflect upon and learn from each experience and  episode from my everyday life. This is the path of development.
3.The sculptors style greatly resembles the Ancient Greek and Renaissance tradition, as the thinking man is nude and beautiful in his natural nudity. The idea of physical perfection is close-knit with intelligence and excellence in mental abilities, as the depth of the mans thought is apparent. The idea of perfection is probably relevant to the Thinker, as each poet or philosopher seeks to create a work which would ideally express his thoughts and feelings. The sculpture represents not merely poets but creative profession in general and it is implied that such work requires self-denial and physical effort.
4.Evaluation and application to the historical context. The sculpture reflects the ideas of the nature of art and philosophy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In this sense, the nakedness of the man can be interpreted as the freedom of art and the urge to find or invent new forms and patterns. Contemporary authors also contended that the true writer or philosopher should experience solitude for deeper contemplation and be able to observe themselves and others. The logical continuation of observation is reflection, which can provide new ideas and allows drawing interesting conclusions. These ideas are further transformed into artworks, inventions or articles, which the author refines and improves through the act of contemplation which can also be understood as critical thinking.   Nowadays, these recommendations are also relevant and applicable. As the number of books published is growing and many of them are of controversial quality, it is important that todays writers keep in mind the idea that talented performance contains 20 percent of inborn gift and 80 percent of hard work.