For this comparative essay, I chose Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Das Veilchen (K. 476), composed in 1785, and Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Pygmalion and Galatea (1890). Firstly, Gérôme’s painting is both dramatic and romantic. This artwork presents an artist’s workshop where the sculptor passionately embraces his marble statue, which is brought to life through divine power or magic. In this painting, Gérôme portrays the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea, taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Book Ten, using a tremendous emotional approach. In short, Ovid portrays Pygmalion as a talented sculptor from Cyprus. Nevertheless, this sculptor was disillusioned with the flaws of mortal women, so he dedicated himself to his art. He carved a marble statue of a beautiful and perfect woman and fell deeply in love with his creation.
However, his creation was not a real woman, just a statue. He adorned the statue with clothes, jewelry, and gifts, caressed it tenderly, and prayed eagerly to Venus – the goddess of love – to grant him a wife as perfect as his statue. Venus, moved by Pygmalion’s devotion and piety, answered his prayer and brought the statue to life. When Pygmalion returned to embrace his creation, he found it had become a living woman named Galatea. In the end, they married and lived happily ever after. In this way, Jean-Léon Gérôme, using oil painting, visualized and portrayed this artwork with meticulous and tremendous detail, especially breaking down the boundary between cold stone and warm life in Pygmalion’s creation.
Secondly, Mozart’s Das Veilchen (K. 476) is a short composition for voice and piano written in Vienna in 1785. Mozart composed this melody using a poem by Goethe. In the poem, Goethe tells the story of a beautiful violet planted in a meadow. Suddenly, a gorgeous shepherdess appeared on the horizon. The violet, hypnotized by the beauty of the mysterious peasant, sang, wondering if it was enough to catch the young girl’s attention. Nevertheless, it realized that it was just a flower and girls like her would never pay attention to someone like it. Nonetheless, the shepherdess was getting closer and closer to the violet. The violet was excited and joyful because the young girl had noticed it. However, the beautiful peasant trampled the violet, leaving after destroying the lovely flower. The violet wilted and died but happily saw its death as meaningful because it happened beneath the feet of the one it loved.
Mozart was so impressed by Goethe’s poem that he composed a voice and piano piece exclusively for this tragic story. Furthermore, he added a stanza to highlight the dramatic end of Das Veilchen; he wrote: “Das arme Veilchen! es war ein herzigs Veilchen” (Poor little violet! He was the sweetest violet). Through Das Veilchen, Goethe symbolizes man’s heart; a heart that is young, beautiful, and noble, but at the same time, vulnerable to the point that his heart is destroyed, even by those he loves.
In Mozart’s composition, his genius portrays the diverse storm of feelings that the violet has in its heart. At the beginning of this opus, the piano introduces the scene where the sweetest violet stands in the meadow. But as soon as the shepherdess appears, the melody changes to a more joyful melody, representing the heart’s excitement when it finds a beautiful person to love. However, this cheerful melody changes again, and now it turns more melancholic because the sweet violet realizes it is not enough to impress the gorgeous shepherdess. Suddenly, the notes, arpeggios and the melody turn dramatic and tragic because the shepherdess destroys the sweet violet. Later, she leaves while the dying violet lies shattered on the ground. However, in the end, the melody is neither melancholic, sad, nor tragic. Instead, it is joyful and merry because the violet found a strange happiness in its fate. Das arme Veilchen!
Both Mozart’s Das Veilchen (K. 476) and Gérôme’s Pygmalion and Galatea reflect the intrinsic talent of these two great artists and composers. Nevertheless, what do these two pieces have in common? While using different forms, whether it be Greek myths, music, or tragic German poetry, all explore and portray the tension between longing and the unattainable; the poignant connection of beauty, love, and transformation. In Gérôme’s painting, Pygmalion yearns for his ideal vision of perfection, pouring his passion into lifeless stone. Similarly, in Das Veilchen, the violet’s love is pure and self-sacrificing, directed toward someone who barely notices its poor existence. Both stories, through different media capture the vulnerability of love.
Indeed, Mozart’s Das Veilchen fits perfectly with Pygmalion feelings. This skillful sculptor is like the violet in the meadow. In the first part, the piano and the voice portray Pygmalion’s noble and humble heart endowed with beauty but alone, begging for someone to share his life. Then, he creates this galvanized marble statue of the perfect woman, and the second part of Mozart’s composition portrays the joy that Pygmalion feels with his creation. Nevertheless, the sad and tragic part of Mozart’s composition comes when Pygmalion realizes that no matter how perfect the statue is, it will still be a simple, cold statue, not a real woman, and it hurts to accept this reality. However, Pygmalion decides to love, even if this act is in pain, even if he feels crushed by the harsh reality of life. Poor violet! Poor Pygmalio!. However, as I explained, Pygmalion’s story, compared to Das Vielchen, finishes with a happier ending.
Both Gérôme and Mozart craft these emotional matters with exquisite artistry. Gérôme’s brushstrokes blur the boundary between stone and flesh, capturing the intimate moment of realization. Mozart, using the through-composed form (a continuous, non-sectional, and non-repetitive piece of music different than the ternary, rondo, or sonata form) in his composition, conveys the violet’s shifting emotions through music: light and joyful for the thrill of love, sad and tragic in rejection, and finally transcendent as the violet finds peace in sacrifice. In both works, beauty becomes paradoxically both a balm and a wound, revealing the profound cost and reward of loving something beyond oneself.
Bibliography
- J. L. Gérome, Pygmalion and Galatea, Oil on Canvas, MET, New York City, United States, Academic Art painting, 1890.
- W. A. Mozart, Das Veilchen (K. 476), Vienna, Classic Music Era, 1785.
