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Why is this Sculptor Kissing His Own Statue?
Crossing the line between artist and muse
Christopher P Jones is the author of How to Read Paintings, an introduction to some of the most fascinating artworks in art history.
This painting shows a sculptor passionately gripping his own marble creation and kissing it. The lady statue appears to respond: she clasps the sculptor’s hand and leans into the kiss.
With fragments of stone scattered on the floor and the sculptor’s hammer discarded, the statue embraces her creator.
Is this the fantasy of all artists: that their beloved creations come to life and love them back?
More Perfect Than Real Life
The moment of coming to life is indeed the theme of this painting. Notice, for instance, how the colour of the marble gradually changes as it rises through the sculpture, from stone-grey to flesh-pink.
The painting is titled Pygmalion and Galatea.
Drawn from ancient myth, Pygmalion was a sculptor from the island of Cyprus. He had an objectionable opinion of the women he saw around him, many of whom had turned to prostitution, as the Roman poet Ovid tells us:
“Pygmalion saw these women waste their lives
in wretched shame, and critical of faults
which nature had so deeply planted through
their female hearts, he lived in preference,
for many years unmarried.”From the Metamorphoses. Source
The bachelor Pygmalion remained alone in his studio, preferring to spend his time carving a statue out of ivory, giving it “exquisite beauty, which no woman of the world has ever equalled.”
He named her Galatea. In Ancient Greek, Galatea means “she who is milk-white” and was related to the sea nymph Galatea, the daughter of the water god Nereus.
