Nude Study of Balzac as an Athlete (Type 'F') c. 1896, Musée Rodin cast no. 5 in 1974 Bronze 37 x 16 x 15 1/2 in. Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation Rodin worked on the Monument to Balzac for seven years. He completed at least fifty studies, some based on Balzac's actual appearance and others that were more subjective and abstract. Rodin's most symbolic rendition, Nude Study of Balzac as an Athelete (Type 'F') , depicts the author with the exaggerated musculature of a younger, more virile body rather than the rotund, aging man of earlier versions. In this controversial image Rodin associates intellectual and artistic creativity with sexual prowess for which Balzac was equally well-known.