In 1879, the Minister of Fine Arts Edmond Turquet commissioned Auguste Rodin to create a colossal sculpture for the future Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Referring to the bronze door executed in the 15th century by Lorenzo Ghiberti for the Baptistery of Florence, and considered by Michelangelo to be "the door to paradise", Rodin spent over three decades imagining every creature and every detail of La porte de l'enfer. The ten-panel work, inspired by Dante's The Divine Comedy, was never entirely finished. After the artist's death in 1917, several sculptures were extracted from the monumental matrix, including The Thinker and The Kiss.

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