Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Pygmalion.
The gallery
Pygmalion and Galatea
Jean-Léon Gérôme, c. 1890
Gérôme's Cypriot sculptor kissing life into ivory — the academic image that fixed Pygmalion for the salon age.
Pygmalion and Galatea
Anne-Louis Girodet, 1813–1819
Girodet's Louvre canvas catches the instant marble softens into flesh: Cupid's torch lights Galatea as Pygmalion kneels in astonishment. Neoclassical polish for Ovid's sculptor who loved his own work into life.
Pygmalion Praying Venus to Animate His Statue
Jean-Baptiste Regnault, 1785
Regnault's Origin of Sculpture shows Pygmalion before Venus, begging life for the ivory maiden — the prayer that precedes the kiss. Painted for the French crown and still at Versailles.
Pygmalion and the Image: The Soul Attains
Edward Burne-Jones, 1875–1878
The last panel of Burne-Jones' Birmingham Pygmalion series: Galatea steps living from the pedestal into the sculptor's arms. Pre-Raphaelite quiet after the prayer, the myth fulfilled in soft light.