Living Bodies at the Musée du Louvre

This spring, the Musée du Louvre presents one of its most ambitious exhibitions of the season: Michelangelo and Rodin: Living Bodies, on view through July 20. Bringing together more than 200 works—from monumental marbles and bronzes to drawings and preparatory studies—the exhibition stages a compelling dialogue between two of the greatest sculptors in Western art.

Separated by more than three centuries, Michelangelo and Auguste Rodin are united here by a shared fascination with the expressive power of the human body. For both artists, the body is not merely anatomical, but animated by an intense inner life, capable of conveying movement, emotion, and psychological depth.

Organized into five thematic sections, the exhibition explores their sources of inspiration, their engagement with raw materials, and their radical approaches to form. Visitors encounter Michelangelo’s figures emerging from stone in states of tension and becoming, alongside Rodin’s fragmented, dynamic bodies that helped redefine sculpture for the modern age. Rather than tracing a simple line of influence, the exhibition reveals a more nuanced conversation: one that reconsiders sculpture itself as a medium for expressing energy, transformation, and life.

Curated by Chloé Ariot and Marc Bormand, the exhibition reflects a close collaboration between the Louvre and the Musée Rodin, bringing fresh scholarly insight to this extraordinary pairing. By placing these two masters in direct dialogue, Living Bodies offers a powerful meditation on how artists across centuries have sought to capture not just the form of the human body, but its vitality and soul.