The Burghers of Calais

Auguste Rodin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Burghers of Calais (1884–95) is Rodin’s best-known public monument. The plaster and bronze casts in this case are small- and large-scale studies from different stages of the commission that Rodin considered independent works. The monument commemorates the heroism of six leading citizens (burghers) of the French city of Calais. In the fourteenth century, at the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War, they offered their lives to the English king in exchange for the lifting of his siege of the city. By portraying their despair and haunted courage in the face of death, Rodin challenged contemporary heroic ideals and made an event from the past seem immediate and real. A full-scale bronze of The Burghers of Calais is on view in the Carroll and Milton Petrie European Sculpture Court (Gallery 548).

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art