"Although
generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture,
he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was
schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to
his work, and desired academic recognition. Sculpturally,
he 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 the predominant figure
sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative,
formulaic, or highly thematic. His most original work
departed from traditional themes of mythology and
allegory, modelled the human body with realism, and
celebrated individual character and physicality. He was
sensitive to the controversy about his work, but did not
change his style, and successive works brought increasing
favour from the government and the artistic community.
From the unexpected
realism of his first major figure - inspired by his 1875
trip to Italy - to the unconventional memorials whose
commissions he later sought, his reputation grew. By 1900,
he was a world-renowned artist. Wealthy private clients
sought his work after his World's Fair exhibit, and he
kept company with a variety of high-profile intellectuals
and artists. He married his life-long companion, Rose
Beuret, in the last year of both their lives. His
sculpture suffered a decline in popularity after his death
in 1917, but within a few decades his legacy solidified.
Oh, and by the way,
what was the name of his elderly aunt?"
Well of course we all
know the answer because this week the paper was set by none
other than Ethel
Rodin herself.
The Fletcher Moss is not
such a noisy a pub but getting through some of the lengthy
questions keeping all 8 quizzers focused on the subject
matter proved quite a challenge for our QM. Perhaps
the longest debate came in Round 5 for the question that won
this week's QotW award (see below). The word 'century'
had been missed out of the text on our copy of the paper and
the QM quite reasonably assumed that Ethel were seeking the
name of the 20th US President rather than a 20th century US
President. This caused major mind blockages as 8 aged
brains tried to count back from Barack Obama (who I think is
about to become the 44th President).
Overall the verdict from
around the venues seems to have been 'a bit of a struggle'.
Ivor comments:
"Fairly hard quiz - 14
unanswered questions. QotW? The one about the
originator of the phrase 'the silent majority', though Mel
Blanc’s gravestone epitaph runs it a close second"
and the verdict from the
other side at the Stadium of Murk comes from Damian:
"In our humble
opinion, Madame Rodin (who was either too modest or too
cowardly to identify herself anywhere by name on the quiz
paper) produced an interesting variety of questions that ran
the gamut from the sublime to the, well.... not so sublime!
Some lovely stuff about Ulrike Meinhof and Hernando Cortez,
but has anyone ever actually heard of British physicist,
Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett?
Of the 'sublime'
questions, the Charabancs' popular choice for QotW was
R7,Q5: 'What appropriate phrase appears on the
gravestone of Mel Blanc, the voice behind Bugs Bunny and
many other Warner Bros cartoon characters?'"
From the Sun in September
John Brennand writes:
"First 6 rounds
were a bit of a struggle - hence the low scoring.
General opinion was that the early rounds contained too
much obscura of little interest."
Kieran's feedback from
the Griffin was none too complimentary. On the Enya/Kraftwerk
pair in Round 5:
".....pairing
Enya's latest self indulgent torpid wailings with
Kraftwerk's genius meisterwork - just shows that Ethel
know nothing about music"
I am assured by Roddy
that the music pair to which Kieran refers was set by the
league's least music-savvy member (well, that has to be
Roz!) who clearly has not swotted up on Kieran's personal
musical tastes. Well shame on her!!
...and on the statistical
side of things? The average aggregate was low but not
the lowest of the season so far. |
