Galatea 1701

Robert Le Lorrain crafted this marble sculpture of Galatea, a Nereid of classical myth, sometime before 1743. Seated upon turbulent waves with dolphins at her feet, Galatea holds a delicate shell, a symbol of her marine dominion and feminine allure. The shell harkens back to Botticelli’s Venus emerging from the sea, reborn, riding upon a giant scallop. This motif, charged with the symbolism of birth and renewal, resonates through time, appearing in varied guises, each echoing the primal forces of nature and transformation. The collective memory of the sea as a place of both creation and destruction is subconsciously captured in this work. These persistent symbols invite us to consider how our own perceptions are shaped by a continuous dialogue between the past and present. This sculpture shows that symbols are never truly static, as they evolve, resurface, and adapt to new cultural landscapes.