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拍品专文
Matthäus Terwesten was a student of his elder brother, Augustinus I Terwesten (1649-1711), as well as Willem Doudys and Daniel Mytens II. He traveled to Berlin and Italy, settling in Rome in the mid-1690s. There he joined the circle of Dutch and Flemish painters known as the Bentvueghels, or 'Birds of a Feather', an artistic clique known for its rowdy behavior and for providing its members with witty nicknames. Terwesten became known as 'Arend', or 'Eagle'. He eventually returned home to The Hague in 1699, where he was appointed regent of the Academy of Drawing. Primarily a portrait and history painter, Terwesten was among the most distinguished classicizing artists the 17th-century Netherlands.
The story of Pygmalion and Galatea is recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses, X, in which the sculptor Pygmalion falls in love with his creation. He prays to Venus to fulfill his desires, and she brings Galatea to life. Here, Terwesten shows the sculptor embracing his lover, whose upper half has begun to change from grey stone to rosy flesh. The golden rays of sunset breaking through the clouds at left add further drama to the moment of transformation. At right, the viewer will recognize Giambologna's celebrated Rape of the Sabine Women, a sculpture well-known throughout Europe via numerous copies in bronze. On the stool at left, Terwesten has depicted the diminutive modello of Galatea, which Pygmalion would have used as a guide while fashioning his final marble statue, a tool as necessary to the sculptor's process as the mallet and chisels on the ground at center.
The story of Pygmalion and Galatea is recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses, X, in which the sculptor Pygmalion falls in love with his creation. He prays to Venus to fulfill his desires, and she brings Galatea to life. Here, Terwesten shows the sculptor embracing his lover, whose upper half has begun to change from grey stone to rosy flesh. The golden rays of sunset breaking through the clouds at left add further drama to the moment of transformation. At right, the viewer will recognize Giambologna's celebrated Rape of the Sabine Women, a sculpture well-known throughout Europe via numerous copies in bronze. On the stool at left, Terwesten has depicted the diminutive modello of Galatea, which Pygmalion would have used as a guide while fashioning his final marble statue, a tool as necessary to the sculptor's process as the mallet and chisels on the ground at center.