Auguste Ottin: Polyphemus suprising Acis and Galatea 1864
Queen Maria, the Medici wife of the French king missed her Florentine home, the Pitti Palace and the Boboli Garden very much, so she ordered to build a similar place around 1610, which is now known as the Luxembourg Garden in Paris. A basin and a fountain with statues are part of the garden, called the Medici Fountain. Ottin’s work is there.
The story of Polyphemus, Acis, and Galatea appears in Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Galatea, the sea nymph and the shepherd Acis, Pan’s son, fell in love with each other, but the Cyclops Polyphemus is in love with her too. The lovers used to mock the giant’s love songs for Galatea. Polyphemus became jealous and when he saw Acis cuddling with Galatea, he killed him with a huge rock. The desperate sea nymph turned Acis’ blood into a river named after him. The river Acis flowed into the sea, so in that way they could reunite and be together forever, the river and the sea nymph. Ottin captured their last cloudless moments.
The shock-headed figure of Polyphemus is so big and dark, that I did not see him first. He is out of the lover’s world. He crests Acis and Galatea but he does not look like the part of the sculpture at all. The two lovers, seems to me, are in their own world, where no one else exists. Their figures are white, like innocence. Under the shadow of the much darker Cyclops, they are fragile.
Acis looks at Galatea with so much love, I think that is why I admire this sculpture. His gentle touch holding her head, his affectionate gaze on her, are very beautiful. Their touchable togetherness makes me jealous sometimes, as it did Polyphemus.
Galatea trustingly subtends in Acis’ lap, like it would be her bed. She caresses his hair while her lover is thoughtfully gazing her face. They look pleased and unconventional in each other’s company. Some kind of peaceful serenity surrounds them. They love and are loved. Alas the evil moment closes in. I feel shouting to warn Acis and Galatea to run, but they would not hear me since they are living in their own world.
The robust and enormous giant regards the love scene towering above them. He leans on a huge rock, most likely on the rock that will kill the unsuspecting Acis very soon.
But not here, in the Luxembourg Garden. Here, Acis’ and Galatea’s marble figures will always embrace each other, while Polyphemus is petrified in the moment jealously looking at them with his only eye, for eternity.
