Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Girodet's Galvanized Bodies

2018; Oxford University Press; Volume: 41; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/1467-8365.12401

1467-8365

Stephanie O’Rourke,

European Political History Analysis

Pygmalion and Galatea (plate 1), in 1819, a bemused review in the Journal des dames et des modes noted that the figure of Eros, who unites the eponymous protagonists, 'seems to conduct (all jokes aside) a galvanic experiment.' 3 The review referred to a bright concentration of light that passes between the knees of Eros and the inanimate statue of Galatea, who is shown coming to life in front of the man who sculpted her.This galvanic -or, as we would call it, electric -experiment would have had several connotations for the Journal's readers.Named after the Italian scientist Luigi Galvani, whose experiments with frog legs were widely known throughout Europe (plate 2), a 'galvanic' experiment described the transmission of electricity through human and animal bodies. 4 More colloquially, galvanism suggested to a French audience both visual and structural transformations: an intense luminous discharge accompanied by the animation of something inanimate.Its inclusion in Girodet's Pygmalion and Galatea served as a timely analogy for the process of bringing a statue to life.