Monument to Balzac by Rodin

Thinking Through Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)’s “The Origin of the Work of Art”

Rodin’s Balzac is a rejection of likeness—it is Being-in-weight, a presence that crushes form in order to shelter substance. Heidegger would recognize this not as portraiture, but as presence in concealment, truth that does not show, but withstands visibility.

The massive cloak envelops the body, the face is barely sketched, more mask than likeness. Rodin said it was Balzac’s spiritual mass, not his appearance. Heidegger would agree. This is Being in reserve, in earth’s assertion of opacity. The world of Balzac—language, density, moral insight—is not shown, but anchored in marble’s stubbornness.

The monument does not represent—it presences, and resists. Heidegger might say: this is truth not as clearing, but as massive refusal to vanish. The sculpture is a block of will, of intellect, of thought so intense it can no longer be shaped.

Rodin’s Balzac does not dwell in elegance. It stands under burden, preserving world through earth’s assertion, letting Being shine not in form, but in the pressure of presence that will not be refined away.