Auguste Rodin Redux

Eternal Springtime, bronze, modeled 1884, cast
between 1898-1918 by Ferdinand Barbedienne

In the early days of this blog, I limited myself largely to Southern Italian subjects. Experiences that fell outside that frame—however formative—were often set aside. Revisiting Rodin recently at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World made me realize that some of those earlier encounters, including photographs I took at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia in 2011, were never shared. Now seems the right moment to return to them.

(L) Eternal Springtime, plaster, painted white, modeled 1884, cast 1886.
(R) Eternal Springtime, bronze, modeled 1884, cast between
1898-1918 by Ferdinand Barbedienne

(L) The Thinker, bronze, modeled 1880-1881, cast 1924 by the
founder Alexis Rudier. (R) The Centauress, bronze, modeled
c. 1887, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier

(L) The Gates of Hell, bronze, modeled 1880-1917, cast 1926-1928
by the founder Alexis Rudier. (R) The Age of Bronze, bronze,
modeled 1875-1877, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier

The Sirens, bronze, modeled 1887, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier

Kneeling Fauness, bronze, modeled c. 1887,
cast 1900 by the founder Alexis Rudier

(L) The Minotaur, plaster, modeled c. 1885, cast c. 1886.
(R) Medea, plaster, modeled c.1880, cast before 1917

Andromeda, marble, modeled 1885, carved 1886

Young Mother in the Grotto, modeled 1885, carved 1891 by Jean Escoula

Danaid (The Source), marble, modeled 1885,
enlarged 1889, carved before 1902 by Jean Escoula

Danaid (The Source), marble, modeled 1885,
enlarged 1889, carved before 1902 by Jean Escoula

(L) Naked Balzac, plaster painted with varnish, modeled
c. 1892-1893, cast before 1917. (R) Polyphemus, Acis,
and Galatea, plaster, modeled 1888, cast before 1895

The Hand of God, bronze, modeled 1898, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier

Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, bronze, modeled 1909-1912,
cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier

(L) Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, bronze, modeled 1909-1912, cast 1925
by the founder Alexis Rudier. (R) Mignon, bronze, modeled
c. 1867-1868, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier 

Victor Hugo, plaster made in 1886, modeled 1883

(L) George Bernard Shaw, bronze, modeled 1906, cast 1926 by
the founder Alexis Rudier. (R) Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, bronze,
modeled 1890, cast 1926 by the founder Alexis Rudier

Madame Vicuña, bronze, modeled 1887, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier

(L) The Left Hand, bronze, modeled c. 1885, cast 1925 by the founder
Alexis Rudier. (R) The Clenched Hand, bronze, modeled
c. 1885, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier

(L) The Cathedral, modeled 1908, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier. (R) The Athlete, bronze, modeled 1901, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier

Oceanides, bronze, modeled 1903-1906, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier

(L) Apotheosis of Victor Hugo, bronze, modeled 1890-1891, cast 1926 by
the founder Alexis Rudier. (R) Project for the "Monument to Claude Lorrain,"
bronze, modeled 1889, cast 1926 by the founder Alexis Rudier 

Balzac, bronze, modeled 1897, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier

(L) The Call to Arms, bronze, modeled 1879, cast 1925 by the
founder Alexis Rudier. (R) The Benedictions, bronze,
modeled 1894, cast by the founder Alexis Rudier

The Shade, bronze, modeled 1881-1886, enlarged
1901-1904, cast 1923 by the founder Alexis Rudier

Adam, bronze, modeled 1880-1881, cast 1925 by the founder Alexis Rudier

The Burghers of Calais, modeled 1884-1895,
cast 1919-1921 by the founder Alexis Rudier

Michela Musolino: An Evening of Sicilian Folk and Roots Music at the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles

A Prayer for Tumbler Ridge

Canadian Martyrs, orate pro nobis

We offer our prayers and sincere condolences for the victims of the deadly mass shooting on February 10th in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. The loss of life and the suffering endured weigh heavily upon our hearts. May St. Joseph, St. Jane de Chantal, the Canadian Martyrs, and Our Lady Queen of Peace protect and watch over you.

Prayer for the Victims

Loving God, welcome into Your arms the victims of violence and hatred. Comfort their families and all who grieve for them. Steady us in our fear and uncertainty, and grant us the assurance that we remain secure in Your love. Strengthen all who labor for peace, and may the peace the world cannot give reign in our hearts. Amen.

A Familiar Melancholy

My father and I ate dinner early, just the way he liked it. There was too much food, the old familiar stories repeated with minor variations, and laughter that came easily, lingering longer than the jokes deserved. It was the kind of evening that reassures you through its ordinariness. When I left, he handed me a container of cavatelli al ragù di maiale for later. We kissed and said, “I love you.” He stood in the doorway, waving—smaller than he used to be, his frame diminished by time, but still solid. Still there.

That night, Manhattan was loud and cold. The streets were apathetic. I met friends at a dive bar to see a buddy’s band—one of those places that never pretends to be anything else. Neon lights buzzed faintly overhead, beer-soaked wood worn smooth from decades of elbows and spilled nights, and a stage barely raised off the floor. I sat at the bar, made conversation with an attractive woman, and leaned into the familiar choreography.

Then, without warning, something inside me collapsed.

It wasn’t sadness. It was absence. Something was gone. No drama, no panic—just a sudden hollow emptiness. I excused myself, crossed the room, and sat on a couch against the wall, its upholstery worn with age and overuse. The band hadn’t started yet. The room hummed with quiet conversation and anticipation. I stared at nothing and felt certain—without knowing why—that something irreversible had already occurred.

Michael, my oldest friend, noticed. He sat beside me and asked if I was okay.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I feel like a part of me died.”

He didn’t try to comfort me or fill the silence. He stayed until the feeling loosened its grip. When the band started, I rose and joined my friends. After the set, I congratulated the band and went home.

The next morning followed its usual routine—coffee, shower, keys, work. I called my father once. Then again. By midday, the silence made me worry. I left early, drove over, and let myself in. The house was too quiet. I found him in the bedroom—where he wouldn’t normally have been at that hour.

The EMT said it happened during the night.

I remembered the bar. The couch. The hollow feeling.

It wasn’t the first time.

Years earlier, in my twenties, I’d been at a house party in New Jersey. Half-drunk, sitting on a sofa, trying to make time with a girl, when the same feeling arrived—sharp, uninvited, unmistakable. I went outside for air.

The stars were bright and indifferent. The yard was dark. In one of the trees, I saw a silhouette of a body hanging by the neck. It was unmistakable and impossible. Michael came out and followed my gaze. I asked if he saw it too. There was nothing there. The tree stood empty. We laughed it off, embarrassed by the moment. I went back inside. Back to the noise. Back to the girl.

Later that week, the friend who’d thrown the party hung himself in that very tree—his heart broken by a girl. Michael and I were stunned, grasping for explanations we didn’t have.

I don’t talk about these things much. In a desacralized world, there’s no way to discuss them without sounding irrational—or unwell. I don’t claim to have insight, foresight, or meaning. I only recognize the feeling now when it comes.

A quiet severing.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, February 11th, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

165º anniversario della fine dell’Assedio di Gaeta (1860–1861)

More Family History Confirmed

Family lore long suggested that I was part Arbëreshë. Recently, a cousin put that beyond rumor, sharing documents showing that my great-grandmother was born in San Costantino Albanese, in the Province of Potenza, Lucania.

I also discovered that my grandparents were married at St. Joachim’s Church on Roosevelt Street in Manhattan, now long since demolished. What makes that detail notable is that I am a member of the Saint Rocco Society of Potenza, which originated at St. Joachim’s in 1889.

By a curious coincidence, I am also a knight in the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George, and St. Constantine the Great is the patron saint of San Costantino Albanese.

The documents confirmed something else: my great-grandfather served in the Italian military with the 2° Reggimento Fanteria during the Italo-Turkish War in Libya. While I did obtain a photograph, the reputed one of him brandishing a captured, oversized Ottoman scimitar still eludes me.

The documents yielded something rarer still: the names of four great-great-grandparents.

Some family rumors, it turns out, were simply facts waiting to be confirmed.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, February 10th, Feast of Santa Scolastica da Nursia

Ash Wednesday at Corpus Christi Church in South River, New Jersey

Rodin, Egypt, and the Return of First Obsessions

Le Désespoir (Despair), bronze, ca. 1893 (model),
1942 (sand casting by Alexis Rudier), Auguste Rodin

At the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, tucked quietly at 15 East 84th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues, two of my enduring boyhood fascinations converged at last: the sculpture of Rodin and Egyptology. What once lived separately stood here in dialogue, as if they had been waiting for one another.

Le Désespoir (Despair)

Rodin’s encounter with Egypt was not scholarly in method but instinctive in approach. He absorbed the ancient world through figures—pharaohs, gods, and fragments—stripped of gesture yet charged with authority. In these works, the human body becomes less expressive and more eternal.

Moving through the exhibition, I was reminded why certain sculptors have always remained close to me. Gemito, Messina, and Cataldi share, with Rodin, an understanding ultimately inherited from Egypt: that stillness can carry more force than motion.

Rodin’s Egypt restores a lineage. It reveals modern sculpture not as a break from the past, but as a return to first principles—weight, proportion, and permanence.

The exhibition, free and open to the public, will run until March 15, 2026. Free tours will be given every Friday from 6–7 pm, and on Saturdays from 11–11:45 am.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, February 9th, Feasts of San Sabino Vescovo, San Corrado di Molfetta, and Sant’Apollonia di Alessandria

Le Désespoir (Despair), bronze, ca. 1893 (model),
1942 (sand casting by Alexis Rudier), Auguste Rodin

La Pensée (Thought), plaster, 1893-1895, Auguste Rodin

Head from a statue of a man, pink granite, 664-30
BC, Egypt, Late Period-Ptolemaic Period

(L) Statuette of a cloaked man, yellow limestone, ca. 1850 BC, Egypt, Middle Kingdom. (R) Naophorous (shrine) statue of Ra-Horakhty, painted
limestone, 1550-332 BC, Egypt, New Kingdom-Late Period

(L) Votive statuette of Osiris, copper alloy, 1550-1069 BC, Egypt, New Kingdom. (R) Votive statuette of Sekhmet, copper alloy, 332-30 BC, Egypt, Ptolemaic Period

(L) Votive statuette of Neith, copper alloy, 664-332 BC, Egypt, Late Period. (R) Votive statuette of Amon-Ra-Montu inscribed with the name of the Nubian Princess Shepenupet II, copper alloy, 700-640 BC, Egypt, possibly Thebes, Third Intermediate-Late Period

(L) Striding statue of a snake goddess, limestone, 332-30 BC, Egypt, Ptolemaic Period. (R) Psyche-Pomona, marble, ca. 1886 (model); 1904-6 (carved by Louis-Dominique Mathet), Auguste Rodin

(L) L'Homme qui Marche (The Walking Man) (small model) Bronze, ca. 1899 (model), 1964 (casting by Georges Rudier, Auguste Rodin. (R) Le Succube (The Succubus), bronze, 1888 (model); ca. 1890 (sand casting by Griffoul and Lorge), Auguste Rodin

Les Damnées (Damned Women), plaster, after 1900, Auguste Rodin

False door of Lady Roudjet, limestone, 2575-2323 BC, Egypt, Old Kingdom

Relief with ritual scene of King Ramses I, painted
limestone, 1295-1186 BC, Egypt, New Kingdom

Sculptor's model of a sphinx, silicified pink sandstone,
332 BCE-395 AD, Egypt, Ptolemaic-Roman Period

(L) Naos stela with Pa inmu and his father It, son of Pedise, basalt, 664-610 BC, Egypt, Memphite Region, Saqgara, Late Period. (R) Balzac: Final Study, plaster, 1897, Auguste Rodin; and Striding statue of a priest, gray granite, 332 BC-640 AD, Egypt, Ptolemaic Period-Roman Period

(L) La Nuit (Night): Assemblage of two proofs, plaster, 1894, Auguste Rodin. (R) Torse de Jeune Femme Cambré (Torso of a Young Woman with Arched Back) (large model) Plaster, 1909, Auguste Rodin

Sculptor's model with images of a king, ebony (mount), ca. 1915, limestone (relief), 1550-30 BC, Egypt, New Kingdom-Ptolemaic Period

(L) Statuette of Thoth as a baboon, faience, 1550-30 BC, Egypt, New Kingdom-Ptolemaic Period. (R) Head from votive statuette of Thoth as an ibis, copper alloy, 1550-664 BC, Egypt, New Kingdom-Third Intermediate Period

(L) Votive statuette of Bastet as a cat, copper alloy, 664-30 BC, Egypt, Late Period-Ptolemaic Period. (R) Votive statuette and reliquary of Bastet as a cat, copper alloy, 664-30 BC, Egypt, Late Period-Ptolemaic Period

(L) Funerary mask of a boy, polychrome stucco and glass, 100-150 AD, Egypt, Roman Period. (R) Funerary mask of a woman, polychrome stucco and glass, 100-150 AD, Egypt, Roman Period

Balzac: Last study for the head, bronze, 1897 (model); 1963 (sand casting by Georges Rudier). Balzac: Head with a clear forehead and a cleft chin, called H head, stamped terracotta, 1894, Auguste Rodin

Balzac: Last study for the head, bronze, 1897 (model);
1963 (sand casting by Georges Rudier), Auguste Rodin

Balzac: Head with a clear forehead and a cleft chin,
called H head, stamped terracotta, 1894, Auguste Rodin