Pygmalion1.0157a_Gérôme

Pygmalion1.0157a_Gérôme

NOTE: modified Nov2016

Jean-Leon Gérôme, "Pygmalion and Galatea" (1890) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, no. 27.200

Other versions of this painting by Gérôme are known, and a sculpture was also done in marble — a fitting explication of the theme, as Gérome himself was a sculptor. See G.M. Ackerman, The Life and Works of J-L Gérôme (London, 1986) for discussion. Very good up-to-date bibliography online at Met site: click here.

See also
Gérôme's Pygmalion, 180 degrees
Gérôme and the Tanagra
Gérôme's sculpted Pygmalion
Gérôme's Omphale

First to identify the painting on the studio's back wall gets a Snickers bar from Macfarlane. Seriously.

For an interesting exploration of the myth's potentially weird psychology, see Michael Longley's poem "Ivory and Water" (1994).

J. Elsner and A. Sharrock, "Re-viewing Pygmalion," Ramus 20 (1991):149-82; A.R.Sharrock, "Womanufacture," JRS 81 (1991):36-49. Both on JSTOR.

Pygmalion's dream comes true in a surprising instant. Eros might have been sent by Aphrodite, an answer to the sculptor's prayer. Still stone (or ivory?) in her lower extremities, the once-inanimate form melts into her sculptor's arms. The matronly image of Chastity and other statuary in the studio comment upon the scene. Gérome paints his own sculptures in this studio to show how closely he identifies with the artist: Gérome himself is Pygmalion.

Subsequently, the union of Pygmalion and his creation results in the birth of Paphos, a daughter named in honor of Aphrodite, and in the birth of a long line of descendants that ends with Adonis. Pygmalion's name indicates his primary activity, a man who creates with his fists (Greek πύξ, Latin pugnus= "fist"). Galatea is not named until post-classical treat-ments, well after Ovid who calls her simply eburnea virgo (the ivory girl). Ovid may have adapted the story from some other source, but his version in Met. 10.243-98 is the earliest version of this story in western literature. G.Bernard Shaw's classic stage-play, Pygmalion, builds most creatively upon the myth, and it forms the basis of F. Loewe's popular musical My Fair Lady. Many versions of the story exist; many seem ignorant of their classical forebear.