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ARTIST AND MODEL Who came first: the artist or the model? No pun intended but the quest is there. The artist's relentless perpetual need to create is indelibly linked to identifying with the model-whatever that may be. It is often said that the artist always creates a self-portrait and no one argues that even in a landscape the artist reproduces or chooses the subject according to a mood or state of mind. In Greek mythology Pygmalion sculpts the milky white figure of Galatea, the imaginary "model", confiding in her all of his passion. The myth recounts: Pygmalion, King of Cyprus, was famous for his ability as a sculptor. Refusing to marry, since no woman could satisfy his image of beauty, he dedicates himself to his work and carves an ivory statue with so much passion, so perfectly that he falls in love with his creation and wishes her as his wife. He works every day making her more beautiful and at night lays with the ivory maiden. The time comes to celebrate the rites of Aphrodite. Pygmalion brings rich offerings to the temple and passionately prays to the Goddess of love to give life to his statue. Hearing the invocation, Aphrodite grants his prayer. When Pygmalion returns home and kisses his creation, he feels the ivory turn to flesh and offers her his hand in marriage. Artists throughout time were inspired by this allegory, from Ovid to Goya to George Bernard Shaw with his 1913 stage play, Pygmalion, that inspired My Fair Lady and in turn Pretty Woman. The model is within the artist who dreams-a-dream passed on to others, in my point of view.

Giancarlo Biagi

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