Pygmalion and the Image - The Godhead Fires
Artist: Edward Burne-Jones (English, 1833-1898)
Date: 1878
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, England
Description
Pygmalion and the Image is the second series of four oil paintings in the Pygmalion and Galatea series by the British Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones which was completed between 1875 and 1878.
Pygmalion and Galatea III: The Godhead Fires
In Ovid's version of the story, the scene is set while Pygmalion is at the temple of Aphrodite, praying for forgiveness for the years he has shunned her and begging for a wife as perfect as his marble woman. In his absence, Aphrodite appears in the studio to impart life to Galatea. In physical terms, the painting shows little difference between the two women: the same, unattainable facial expression; the marble colouring; the Amazonian stature. Ironically, their interlaced arms and Aphrodite's penetrating gaze emulate the intertwined women, so despised by Pygmalion, in The Heart Desires.
