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Pygmalion
and Galatea Completed in 1593, Goltzius paid very little attention to the marble texture that the statue should have had. Instead Goltzius focused primarily on the human figure because the painting is at the moment right before Galatea comes to life. The Roman Numerals below the painting state the following:
From John Becker (1967) Goltzius. Vol 2. New York |
The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion’s Image
Marston,
John (?1575 - 1634)
Satirist and dramatist.
His father was a lawyer. John Marston was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford; lectured in the Middle Temple (one of the Inns of Court); entered the Church in 1609. His writing life runs from 1598 to 1607. During this period he engaged in literary warfare with Ben Jonson (‘the war of the theatres’) who satirized Marston and Dekker in The Poetaster (1601) and elsewhere. The two men were, however, intermittently friends, and collaborated (with Chapman) in writing Eastward Hoe (1605), for which they were imprisoned for offending the king's Scottish friends.
In 1598 Marston published The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image and, under the pen-name of W.Kinsayder, a collection of satires entitled Scourge of Villainie (ordered burned by the Pope). The satires are modeled on those of the Roman poet Persius. The language is coarse and vigorous, and the violence and disgust they exhibit become a feature of Marston's dramatic writing. His plays are his most successful work, but they are very uneven. Antonio and Mellida and Antonio's Revenge (1599-Antonio) are revenge plays in the tradition of Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, and exhibit a mixture of Stoic idealism and melodramatic sensationalism, with passages of intense poetry. The Malcontent is a tragicomedy and usually considered to be Marston's most effective work; its satirical qualities and the role of the central character suggest comparisons with Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and Hamlet. The Dutch Courtesan (1605), The Parasitaster, or the Fawne (1606) and What You Will (1607) are comedies; Sophonisba, Wonder of Women (1605) and The Insatiate Countess (?1606) are tragedies.
It was Marston's lack of critical control and the bad taste of his extravagance which caused the satirical attacks on him by Jonson. His violent revulsion from sensuality and worldly vice inspired some of his best passages as well as his worst ones.
Bibliography
Ellis-Fermor, U. M., The Jacobean Drama; Caputi, A., John Marston, Satirist;
Finkelpearl, P., John Marston of the Middle Temple.
Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature, © Bloomsbury 1997
