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The passionate love of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta was a theme which Rodin used to inspire The Kiss. Although it was originally intended to be part of the Gates of Hell, Rodin did not feel that it fit and removed the figures to make them an individual statue. The form of the lovers emerges from the highlights and shadows of the statue. Light and shade were used by Rodin to create an impression of actuality. He did with modeling that which his contemporaries, the French impressionist painters, were doing with pigment. Notice the convulsive contraction of the toes on the man's right foot and the tenseness of his hand in contrast to the woman's thigh. Such details reveal much of the passion that inflames the lovers, but they reveal it with taste and refinement.

Wrote the poet Rainer Maria Rilke of this masterpiece: “One has the impression of seeing the delight of this kiss all over these bodies; it is like a sun which rises and its light is everywhere.”

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