{"id":1427,"date":"2026-07-27T11:23:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.grgas.hr\/2026\/07\/27\/mestrovic-and-rodin-from-student-to-equal-interlocutor\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:13:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:13:43","slug":"mestrovic-and-rodin-from-student-to-equal-interlocutor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.grgas.hr\/en\/2026\/07\/27\/mestrovic-and-rodin-from-student-to-equal-interlocutor\/","title":{"rendered":"Me\u0161trovi\u0107 and Rodin: From Student to Equal Interlocutor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By:<\/strong> Anita Birimi\u0161a<\/p>\n\n

Note: The text was originally written in 2013, on the occasion of Ivan Me\u0161trovi\u0107’s exhibition at the Mus\u00e9e Rodin in Paris, as part of the Croatian cultural season in France. It is published as an author’s testimony from that period. <\/p>\n\n

Ahead of Croatia’s entry into the European Union, Paris hosted a major cultural season dedicated to Croatia in 2012 and 2013. Within this framework, an exhibition of Ivan Me\u0161trovi\u0107 was opened at the Mus\u00e9e Rodin in Paris, symbolically placed in the year of the 50th anniversary of his death and the 60th anniversary of the donation by which he bequeathed his works to the Croatian people. <\/p>\n\n

The exhibition was not merely a retrospective, but a clear cultural statement: Ivan Me\u0161trovi\u0107 was presented as an artist who belongs to the very top of European and world sculpture of the 20th century. <\/p>\n\n

“I am a sculptor because I cannot be anything else,” Me\u0161trovi\u0107 used to say. Throughout his life, he created tirelessly \u2013 not only as a sculptor, but also as a painter and writer. His oeuvre transcended national boundaries and already clearly belonged to the world’s cultural heritage. <\/p>\n\n

Although he was recognized and celebrated in the cultural centers of Europe and the United States during his lifetime, at the beginning of the 21st century, the Western world was rediscovering him, often with surprise. <\/p>\n\n

That year, as a tourist guide, I found myself several times in Jupiter’s Temple in Split \u2013 without Me\u0161trovi\u0107’s John the Baptist. It is not the same to show guests a photograph instead of an imposing sculpture. The feeling of emptiness was real. Nevertheless, I proudly explained where it was and why it was there \u2013 in Paris, side by side with Rodin. <\/p>\n\n

Me\u0161trovi\u0107 and Rodin first met in Rome. In his letters, Me\u0161trovi\u0107 addressed Rodin with deep respect \u2013 My dear Master. This expression clearly testifies to the initial relationship of a student to a teacher, but also to the awareness of the greatness before him. <\/p>\n\n

However, this relationship evolved into a dialogue over time. Rodin recognized in Me\u0161trovi\u0107 a sculptor of strong expression and his own sculptural language \u2013 an artist who, as he wrote, “pours life into stone.” The relationship of teacher and student grew into a relationship of equal interlocutors. <\/p>\n\n

The permanent exhibition of the Mus\u00e9e Rodin included a Portrait of Rodin, which Me\u0161trovi\u0107 created in Rome in 1914. It is a homage to the teacher, but also a self-aware, authorial interpretation. Me\u0161trovi\u0107 did not imitate \u2013 he contemplated and shaped, retaining his own sculptural identity. <\/p>\n\n

In front of the museum entrance, the Well of Life in plaster was also placed, a work created when Me\u0161trovi\u0107 was only twenty-two years old, a strong testament to the early maturity of his talent.<\/p>\n\n

His presence at the Mus\u00e9e Rodin clearly showed that Me\u0161trovi\u0107 was not there as a guest, but as an equal participant in the European sculptural canon. His works stood alongside Rodin’s \u2013 without the need for additional explanation. <\/p>\n\n

Under the impression of devastating wars, Rodin strongly opposed the destruction of monuments and works of art, emphasizing that they belong not only to individual nations but to all humanity.<\/p>\n\n

The two giants of the 20th century left us an immense legacy. Their works are entrusted to all of us \u2013 to preserve, understand, and pass on with full responsibility. <\/p>\n\n

Anita Birimi\u0161a<\/p>\n\n