Art and literature have created love couples that impress us with deep closeness. In his metamorphoses, the Roman poet Ovid takes up a beautiful legend of mythology. The artist Pygmalion has made due to bad experiences his withdrawal from the women's world. The sculptor retreats into his art and creates a female figure, who is increasingly becoming his dream wife. He breathes life-like forms into ivory and builds a personal relationship with his statue, which leads to deep love. Pygmalion makes a wish to the goddess of love. He wants a woman to be the likeness of his artwork. At the next embrace, the statue comes to life. Both become a couple, the woman is named Galatea.

Jean-León Gérôme chose the romantic saga as a motif for his paintings. Pygmalion kisses his statue, which slowly comes to life. The delicate skin and soft shapes of Galatea display the pale shimmer of ivory on the pedestal and the rosy glow of a young woman's torso. The painter has perfectly realized the idea of a perfect body of the woman. Eros or Amor waits in the background for the timing of the perfect shot. The arrow will strike when the metamorphosis of the ivory figure to the living galatea is completed. With perfect painterly skill, Gérôme succeeded in putting the legend on a canvas and telling the plot.

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Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean Leon Gerome. Available as an art print on canvas, photo paper, watercolor board, uncoated paper or Japanese paper.
model · studio · black cat · sculpture · coming to life · sculptor · lovers · kiss · galatee · love · lover