Pygmalion
Truus, Bob & Jan too! posted a photo:
Vintage French postcard by A.S. (Saint-Just), Paris, series 743, 2. Ca. 1900s. Scene from 'Pygmalion', inspired by the operetta 'Die schöne Galathée' by Franz von Suppé (1865), which parodies Ovid's tale from his Metamorphoses. Caption: Pygmalion: To escape my wrath, stay away.
Plot: The Cypriot sculptor Pygmalion refuses to sell his beautiful statue of a woman to old Midas, who has bribed Pygmalion's assistant Ganymedes to show it to him. The artist chases them and implores Venus to make the statue he so adores alive. His wish is granted, but he regrets his wish as Galatea prefers the love of Ganymedes. Vexed, Pygmalion implores the goddess to turn the unfaithful woman back into stone again, and wants to destroy it, but Midas convinces him to sell the statue to him.
In the 1900s, A.S. (Saint-Just) published several staged, coloured postcard series based on operas and operettas such as 'Tosca', 'Faust', 'Manon Lescaut', 'Carmen', 'Cavalleria rusticana', 'Die schöne Galathée', 'La fille du régiment', 'Pippo et Bettina', 'La fille de Madame Angot' and 'Le passant', books such as 'Paul et Virginie', and plays such as 'Cyrano de Bergerac' and 'Madame Sans-Gène'.


