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existence, somehow abstracting the very specificity of the body. Inhis photographic imageOrtega fixes this same energy and separates it from thepassingof time. But, in the necessary contingency of the real body in thephotograph, the latter underlines the carnal presence of the hero -with a greater closeness thanour contemporary view - andbrings us closer to themoment when the artwork turns to life. In someway this photographbecomes a clear stagingof the Pygmalionmyth, throughwhichBover’s sculpture reclaims a new existence and finally reveals thebelief in a real Galatea, in a flesh-and-bone Jonatan that, placedbefore the artist’s camera or the sculptor’s clay, impresses his formon representation and fills thematter withpresence. Tact and vision,matter and energy fuse, filling the hero’s imagewith sensuality. In thewords of theGerman aesthete JohannGottfriedHerder: Sculpture creates beautiful forms , it forms shapes indepth and places the object there for us . Of necessity, itmust create that whichmerits such representation andwhich possesses independent existence . It cannot gain anything by placingobjects alongside one another , so that one object assists another and the whole profits thereby. For inSculpture the one object is thewhole and thewhole is one object . […]What sculpture should create, andwhat it has succeeded in creating, is forms inwhich living soul animates the entirebody, forms inwhich art can compete on the task of representing the embodied soul , that is to say, gods, humanbeings, andnoble animals […] A sculpturebeforewhich I kneel can embraceme, it can becomemy friend and companion: it is present, it is there JohannGottfriedHerder. Sculpture: SomeObservations onForm andShape fromPygmalion’sCreativeDream , 1778 JorgeEgea Greek personificationofmemory. Mnemosyne was not only considered as aprinciple of knowledge, but was also the mother of themuses that inspired art and artists, andwas as such knowledge linked to creation and art. The figure shownbyBover’s sculpture, whichwas not original in itself, but represented the longevity of a classically-inspired heroic typology recoveredby the sculptor that had a great influence on the continuation of the classical world in themodern age. It is, therefore a Mnemosyne of this heroicbody. AntonioCanova, fromwhomBover learnt albeit indirectly, had alsoused his creative talent in sculpture to revitalise past forms. In a collectionof figures in thePioClementino Museum, part of thewider collectionof theVatican Museums, he recreates the image of thepugilistsCreugas (or Kreugas) andDamoxenos, commemorating an epic Pankration inwhich, according toPausanias, Creugas, the championof Epidamnos, facedoff Damoxenos of Syracuse in theNemeanGames of 400BC. The formof Bover’s sculpture is clearly inspiredbyCanova’s Creugas, but unlike the latter, theBarcelona sculpture is anoriginal plaster that was never cast inmarble. Plaster sculptures havebeen historically considered ‘unnoble’ compared tomarble or bronzework, which are considered farmore ‘noble’. In the case of the sculptors’ original works, and especially so in the 19th centurywe are currently focussedon, plaster was thematerial used to transform a workmore normallymodelled in clay. Thismeans that the plaster was amore resistantmaterial that inmost cases became the transitional material toobtain thedefinitive sculpture. Plaster alsooffered the advantage of being white, an important fact given that the colour fitted inwith the aesthetic ideas spread aroundRome a hundred years previously by Johann JoachimWinckelmann, that now had moved around thewhole of enlightenedEurope. During theprocess a kindofmould ismade called a‘lost mould’ as it is only used to create a singlepiece as is lost thanks to the characteristics ofmaking amould in clay. The steps taken that help us to evaluate the huge effortmade by sculptors are the following: the original claymould is separated, usually ending updestroyedor brokenby the very actionof opening themould. Themould is closed and filledwithplaster; once theplaster is hardened, themould is broken and hence you have aplaster casting,making this plaster the only original that exists. Herewe can see the value of the numerous plaster works of many sculptures from thepast, themajority of whichwere never cast inbronze or carved in stone. Given that they are uniqueworks bornof a creative and technical process, we can see their worth as an artwork and accept the exclusivity anduniqueness of theirmaterial with new eyes, leavingbehind the negative idea that plaster casts have had historically. In somethingof a u-turn, what was considered poor is newly appreciated. Theseplasters are now a highly- prizedmaterial thanks towhich the legacy of thepast has come to us. The sculptorsCanova andBover transformed a real person into a sculpture that overcomes the expiry date of thebody but that encapsulates their soul andperpetuates their Manel ORTEGA Jonatan , 2014. HarmanWarmtone. ©Manel Ortega. Cortesíadel autor/ Courtesyby the author 91