Man through his art
Man through his art
In 1347 six burghers of Calais volunteered to give their lives to save their beseiged city, and though they were eventually spared, the event has gone down as one of the most glorious examples of the spirit of self-sacrifice in history. Five hundred years later, in 1895, Auguste Rodin chose the theme for one of his greatest works in bronze, and in 1903 the poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a moving description of this immortal scene. Rilke's text and the group scene above are reproduced in the first volume, War and Peace, of a new art series entitled Man Through His Art appearing early next year.
The Unesco Courier presents the Rodin and Rilke works in this issue not only for their intrinsic beauty but as an example of the struggle for Human Rights to mark the 14th anniversary this month (December 10) of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the U.N. General Assembly.