Bourdelle, (Émile) Antoine (1861-1929) , French sculptor, who was one of the pioneers of 20th-century monumental sculpture. For many years an assistant to the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin, he adopted some of Rodin's powerful romanticism, combining it with deliberate references to ancient Greek sculpture in intensely dramatic poses, as in his taut bronze Hercules the Archer (1909, Art Institute of Chicago). His modeling is roughly generalized rather than sharp, frequently using fragmented torsos.