The Thinker(沉思者)

In November 2010, as a prelude to the university’s hundredth anniversary celebration, Hsieh Hong Liang(謝宏亮), who graduated from the Department of Physics in 1973, donated this replica of Rodin’s The Thinker(Le Penseur)from his personal collection. Located in front of the Learning Resources Center (Macronix Building旺宏館), The Thinker measures 180 × 150 × 94 cm. The Thinker was originally the central figure of a doorway surround commissioned in 1880 titled The Gates of Hell, which is based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. Afterwards, Rodin made a series of plaster versions of this figure, but it was only in 1902 that he completed the first large-scale bronze casting. Since then, The Thinker has been recast in various sizes. Amongst the large-scale bronzes, 21 were authorized by Rodin himself and the Musée Rodin; beginning in 1998, an additional 25 bronze reproductions have been cast by the Valsuani Foundry, the last of which is the one now on display at NTHU.