Le Succube

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), the author of this succube figure, was a famous French sculptor. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art. Sculpturally, Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. Many of his most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with figurative sculpture traditions, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality. This is a depiction of a succubus, who is a demon in female form, or supernatural entity in folklore, that appears in dreams and takes the form of a woman in order to seduce men.