Tuesday 10 August 2010

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Pygmalion and Galatea, Jean-Léon Gérôme, c.1890
I love this painting. I had a miniature print of it from the Met by my bed for ages.
The story, from Ovid's Metamorphosis, is that Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with one of the statues he had carved. He made a wish to Venus that his sculpture be turned into a real woman. A cupid sent by Venus kissed the sculpture on the hand, and it was changed into a beautiful woman called Galatea. Pygmalion and Galatea were married.

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