She Who Was The Helmet-Maker's Once Beautiful Wife
How art becomes timeless in a world ravaged by time.
Good art has meaning, and that meaning can sometimes transcend even the original artist’s intent. But art is only rendered timeless by its connection to universal truths, not by how well it can complement a home’s décor.
Auguste Rodin’s The Old Courtesan is meant to depict the way that time ravages all fleshly beauty. She Who Was The Helmet-Maker's Once Beautiful Wife, as the sculpture has come to be known, has captivated minds for over a century, and rightly so. And in his 1961 sci-fi classic, Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein summarized some of his musings on this piece quite effectively.
“Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist--a master--and that is what Auguste Rodin was--can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is . . . and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be . . . and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo . . . see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body.”
Stan Rogers would later echo this sentiment in his song Lies, comparing Auguste Rodin’s sculpture to “a pretty maiden trapped inside the ranch wife's toil and care.”
Is this the face that won for her the man
Whose amazed and clumsy fingers put that ring upon her hand
No need to search that mirror for the years
The menace in their message shouts across the blur of tears
So this is beauty's finish! Like Rodin's "Belle Heaulmie're"
The pretty maiden trapped inside the ranch wife's toil and care
Well, after seven kids, that's no surprise
But why cannot her mirror tell her lies
In that vein, Chapter 31 of the Book of Proverbs records an inspired utterance in which King Lemuel recites some verse which he had learned from his mother. Her wise advice to her son was that he not waste the strength of his youth chasing after intoxications, be they beautiful women, wine or beer. Rather, he should pursue the everlasting by keeping a sober mind to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. . . He should defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
The king’s mother then begins an acrostic poem in which she teaches her son the priceless value of a good wife. She rhetorically asks Lemuel:
A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Proverbs 31:10 NIV
The woman that the king’s mother would want her son to pursue may indeed be outwardly beautiful. But she would also have an inner beauty far beyond the deceptive charm of the flesh, for she would be clothed in “strength and dignity” allowing her to “laugh at the days to come.” Truly, this is the wisdom that comes from the fear of the Lord, and gray hair is only a crown of splendor if is attained in that way of righteousness. Building upon this point, Lemuel’s mother advises her son that:
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Honor her for all that her hands have done,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Proverbs 31:30-31 NIV
Auguste Rodin is gone. Robert Heinlein and Stan Rogers are gone too. And in the end, even Rodin’s famed bronze sculpture will be turned to dust. Our world is ravaged by time. But we all burn under the same sun, and common grace has made these truths intuitive to all. In that way, a good artist is able to remind us of the timeless truths which we already know. And so, we would be wise to search ourselves with a sober mind, so that we too may pursue that which is unchanging; to seek the living God while He may be found.
