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The importance of the torso

Maillol regarded the torso as a pure form and the true subject of a work of sculpture. The fact that a sculpture can be eroded and pummelled by the sand and waves for thousands of years to the point that it becomes a figure reduced to simple volumes that still remain harmonious, in spite of everything, demonstrated to him that form, and not meaning, is all that matters and that the purity of a line and profile is eternal.

His view of the torso-a part of the human body-as the culmination of form and as a work in itself was one of Maillol's most innovative ideas in sculpture, as the artist was at this time breaking with the tradition of the complete figure.

Tors, 1900
Bronze, 66,5 x 30,5 x 21 cm
Émile Godard, núm. 3/4
Galerie Dina Vierny, Paris