Scallop - Inktober Day 4

I’ve never eaten scallops before, and while looking for reference photos, all I found was tasty looking seafood. I knew that couldn’t be all, so I googled scallops again.

This time, I found an etching of ‘Galatea riding a scallop shell’ by F Bartolozzi, created in 1796.

This piqued my interest, and I was able to learn two different mythological tales obout 2 women named Galatea.

One was a sculpture made of ivory, but the person who created the sculpture fell in love with her. Aphrodite saw this and decided to make the statue a living being. The sculptor and his creation ended up getting married.

The second Galatea was a sea nymph who fell in love with a mortal, Acis. But a jealous Cyclops saw this, and hurled a stone at the mortal, thereby ending his life.

The etching in this case was of the sea nymph. The story inspired me to create for today’s prompt, if I hadn’t come across the story, I’d have painted a delicious looking scallop
; )