Auguste Rodin, The Thinker.
Originally titled Dante or Poet, The Thinker is one of Rodin's most famous works. The sculpture was modelled by the artist between 1880 and 1882 for the tympanum of the famous Gate of Hell. The portal of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris featured a series of figures, sculpted in bas-relief, from Dante's poem. In 1888, a smaller version was exhibited in Copenhagen. In 1902, Rodin produced a monumental fusion of two metres in height: exhibited two years later at the Salon de Printemps, it was placed in front of the Pantheon in Paris, before being exhibited in the Rodin Museum.
Over time, this work, clearly influenced by the art of Michelangelo, lost its link with its original purpose and became a symbol of intellectual and creative activity. There are more than twenty fusions of different sizes, including one on the artist's tomb in Meudon. The copy in the Vatican Museums is a posthumous fusion that entered the Collections in 1959, along with the first group of modern and contemporary artworks.
Source : museivaticani