Galatea1.0048_Poussin

Galatea1.0048_Poussin

Ovid Met. 13.738-897
Theocritus, Id. 11
Apollod. Libr. 1.2.7
Wikipedia Commons

Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1665, "(The Marriage of) Acis and Galatea," (formerly called "The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis") 1628-1630, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, no. 814.

Polyphemus pipes as two cupids pull back the cloak and show him that his love for Acis is fully rejected in her relationship with Acis. In the traditional myth, the Cyclops will next crush Acis under a rock. According to Ovid, Galatea will turn her partner into a river that will bear his name. But here the Theocritean narrative, Polyphemus' love-sick elegy, prevails.

A Bacchanal scene with nymphs, satyrs, and Cupid in a lush landscape under a dramatic sky

C. Allen: "Poussin tried [in his sensationalistic 1620 narrative; =1.0047__Poussin] to convey as clearly as he c[ould] both the physical situation and the contrasting passions of the protagonists at the moment when Polyphemus catches the lovers in the forest, just before Galatea sees him." Contrast this with the present painting executed about a decade later, which has become "a poetic meditation on desire, reciprocity and loneliness. Poussin's understanding of the story has deepened both in a greater familiarity with Ovid's text and its own sources, and in an independent reflection on the significance of the subject." "(Cambridge Companion to Ovid, p. 351.)

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.