The Three Shades 1880-1904, Single figure conceived about 1880, Group composition by 1904, Musée Rodin cast no. 10 in 1981 Bronze 38 ¼  x  37 ½  x  20 ½ in. Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection The Three Shades stand atop The Gates of Hell above The Thinker, gesturing downwards, heads lowered and arms extended, appearing despondent and weary. The composition consists of three casts of the same figure juxtaposed at slightly different angles. Rodin's peers believed The Three Shades signified Dante's warning, "Abandon every hope, ye who enters here," which is taken from the inscription above the Gates of Hell in Dante's Inferno.