The Three Shades consists of Rodin's figure of Adam in three casts and, like Adam, this sculpture reflects Rodin's desire to rival Michelangelo. In combining the figures, Rodin extended the left arm forward and bent the neck down to align with the shoulder. Some suggest that the modifications were intended to allude to Michelangelo's Creation of Adam from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Three Shades were featured at the top of Rodin's Gates of Hell. Rodin's contemporaries interpreted the figures in terms of Dante's warning inscribed over the entrance to the Inferno, "Abandon all hope, you who enter here."