The last masterpiece you'll see in the garden of the Museum is The Gates of Hell. This work was inspired by Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" and was commissioned by the Undersecretary for Fine Arts to be placed at the entrance of a new museum devoted to decorative arts. The building was never built, and the sculptor continued to work on this great, very complex statue for the rest of his life.
Inspired by Michelangelo, he wanted to create a monumental meditation on death, pain, redemption, and damnation. When he died, the gate still hadn't been finished; bronze castings were created based on the last of his plaster versions and drawings eight years later. Some of the sculptures that were initially designed for The Gates of Hell took on a life of their own, including a work that you will surely be familiar with: The Thinker, a symbol of human creativity.
