This is a bronze replica of "The Kiss" (1889) by the famous French sculptor, Auguste Rodin. The embracing couple depicted in the sculpture appeared originally as part of a group of reliefs decorating Rodin’s monumental bronze portal The Gates of Hell, commissioned for a planned museum of art in Paris. The sculpture, The Kiss, was originally titled Francesca da Rimini, as it depicts the 13th-century Italian noblewoman immortalized in Dante’s Inferno (Circle 2, Canto 5) who falls in love with her husband Giovanni Malatesta’s younger brother Paolo. Having fallen in love while reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, the couple is discovered and killed by Francesca’s husband and sent to the 2nd circle of hell for lust. The lovers lips do not actually touch in the sculpture, suggesting that they were interrupted and met their demise without their lips ever having touched. When critics first saw the sculpture in 1887, they suggested the less specific title Le Baiser (The Kiss). This masterful work of art was molded using the age-old methods of lost-wax casting and stained with a brown patina finish and mounted upon a marble base. Dimensions: Height 6 X Width 4 inches. Weight: 4 LBS.

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