The Tale of Pygmalion Told in a Series of Four Paintings
Pygmalion and Galatea I: The Heart Desires
Pygmalion and Galatea II: The Hand Refrains
Pygmalion and Galatea III: The Godhead Fires
Pygmalion and Galatea IV: The Soul AttainsThe tale of Pygmalion dates back to Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Pygmalion is a sculptor who is disgusted by the behavior of local women –he found them frivolous and shallow, not to mention immoral. Just to make the decision to live a life of celibacy instead of choosing one of these women shows his level of disgust. To choose a life of loneliness when he could have possibly found the least shallow, the least frivolous, the least immoral? No. Pygmalion was fed up. I think he instinctively knew what he desired in a partner and the women in his town were all the complete opposite. He would not settle for less. He can not give up his dream.
Burne-Jones introduces us to Pygmalion in the first painting, Pygmalion and Galatea I: The Heart Desires. He stands in contemplation. His back turned to the living women in the doorway. And yet he’s not looking at the women depicted in statue either (the statues are the three graces, by the way). But look at the floor. We can see, reflected, an array of body parts…posterior, thighs, etc. Pygmalion does not look at these. He ignores the living women, the statues of women, the reflection of femininity. Instead, we can assume that he is thinking of the perfect woman that exists only in Pygmalion’s head, the women that he shall soon sculpt.
In the second picture of the series (Pygmalion and Galatea II: The Hand Refrains), we see Pygmalion has been busy at work. In the doorway, we can still see local women in the distance……real, flesh and blood women that Pygmalion has disdained. He has created the woman of his dreams, his perfect woman. He admires her now, all the hard work is done. We can see his tools at the base of the statue. He has created her and he loves what he has created.
According to Metamorphoses, Pygmalion prays to the goddess Aphrodite, hoping she will bless him with a wife that will be just as wonderful and perfect as the statue he has created. This was a bold step for the sculptor, as he had essentially shunned Aphrodite in the past. So we see in the third painting of the series (Pygmalion and Galatea III: The Godhead Fires) that Aphrodite has visited Pygmalion’s statue. Their arms entwined, we now see the presence of doves and flowers that were never present in the studio before. The goddess has brought life into the studio, and to Galatea (Pygmalion’s creation). This is my favorite painting of the series. There is a beauty quite different from the other pictures. What do you think?
In the final picture (Pygmalion and Galatea IV: The Soul Attains) Pygmalion discovers that his statue has come to life. His prayers to Aphrodite have been heard and granted. He kneels at her feet, apparently grateful that his ultimate dream has come true.
Famously, the Pygmalion story was the inspiration of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion which in turn was the basis for the musical My Fair Lady.
And who was the model for Pygmalion’s statue, the “dream woman”? Maria Zambaco, with whom Burne-Jones had quite a famous affair. Interestingly, Zambaco herself was a sculptor. You can see a study that Burne-Jones sketched of Maria at the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery website. This entire series of Pygmalion paintings was commissioned by Euphrosyne Cassavetti, Maria Zambaco’s mother.
Notice that with the titles of the paintings, Burne-Jones has created a poem:
The heart desires
The hand refrains
The godhead fires
The soul attains.
Victorian Web Article: Burne-Jones’s Departure from Ovid in the Pygmalion Series
Overview of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion at Literary Encyclopedia
Or read it at Project Gutenburg
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Check out this George Bernard Shaw DVD collector’s set
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