La Danaïde

(1885)

Greek mythology tells about Danaïde and her forty-nine sisters who married the fifty sons of Aegyptus. Their father, King Danaos, who is in conflict with Aegyptus, orders his daughters to kill their husbands during their wedding night. Their punishment for their horrendous crime was to spend the rest of their lives in the underworld, filling vessels with water which could never be filled. This story gave Rodin the opportunity to visualise the total exhaustion of the female body. The marble stresses the fluent curves and reflects the aesheticism of Art Nouveau.