literary representations of brancusi’s studio

This essay examines two novels, the main character of which is Constantin Brancusi: The Interview [1944] by Ilarie Voronca, and The Saint of Montparnasse [1965] by Peter Neagoe. Although dissimilar in style and genre, the two novels share the same pattern of shaping the artist’s image, grounded on mythical elements that are traceable at some points back in the Renaissance. The studio plays the key role in structuring the narrative of the two novels. Seen as an extension, if not as a double of the sculptor character, the studio is a space of seduction and authority, malleable and metamorphic, meant to set up the encounter with the artist.