Pygmalion and Galatea

1763

Marble, 23 7/16 × 15 3/4 × 11 7/16 in. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Under two feet high, a group to study at arm's length: the Rococo brought marble indoors, and Falconet, head of sculpture at Sèvres, also supplied the design as a porcelain model.

Look at

Three figures fit a narrow pyramid; the kneeling man's drapery spreads the base and the standing figure closes the apex.
The marble is worked to different finishes: smooth polished skin, a rough matte rock, crisp drapery folds.
The standing figure is a straight vertical; the kneeling man and the child curve in toward her, so the group turns on its own axis.

Very likely the group Falconet showed at the Salon of 1763: the moment Venus brings the sculptor's statue to life.
Bought by Henry Walters in 1924 and left to the museum in 1931.

Image: The Walters Art Museum · CC0 (Walters)