Pygmalion and Galatea

Here the French painter Thomas Blanchet depicts the mythical sculptor Pygmalion in a make-shift sculptor’s studio, set in a courtyard with arches and Corinthian arcades, rendered in exacting perspective. Blanchet studied painting, probably under Simon Vouet, after being directed toward the medium by the influential sculptor Jacques Sarazin. In the mid-1640s he travelled to Rome, where he worked alongside members of Poussin’s circle including Andrea Sacchi, Pietro da Cortona and Gianlorenzo Bernini. In addition to working as a painter, Blanchet was a skilled architect and executed both permanent and ephemeral projects in Lyon, where he was appointed as Peintre Ordinaire in 1658. Blanchet is best remembered today for his important decorative projects, particularly the Hôtel de Ville in Lyon, for which he supplied both paintings and sculptures.

At lower left of the present composition Pygmalion has just completed his sculpture of Galatea. As recounted by Ovid, the sculpture found his statue to be so perfect that he fell in love with his creation. On the day of Aphrodite’s festival he made offerings at the goddess's altar, secretly hoping that his sculpture would turn into a real woman. When he returned home and kissed the sculpture, it sprung to life. The story of Pygmalion and Galeta is recorded in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and has inspired painters, sculptors, authors, dancers and playwrights through the centuries. The trope of paintings and sculptures that imitate life with such verisimilitude they seem ‘real’ was common in antiquity and continued through the Renaissance. The captivating myth of Pygmalion and Galetea is still used as a model by artists today. H.P. Lovecraft's short stories, the stage musical My Fair Lady, villain of the Batman comics Professor Pyg, episodes of Star Trek, a contemporary ballet entitled Patterns (Wonderbound Ballet, Denver, 2018), and the critically acclaimed 2007 film, Lars and the Real Girl, all found inspiration in Ovid’s myth.