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In the “Metamorphoses”, the Roman poet Ovid tells of the legendary Pygmalion, who was not only king but also a talented sculptor and once fell in love with a statue he had created. The attraction was so strong that he was able to persuade the goddess Aphrodite to bring the statue to life. The myth symbolises the power of sculpture to transform dead material into something living. Such transformations are at the centre of the research project of art historian Dr Marthe Kretzschmar. She is investigating interactions between art and natural science in the 18th century, when geology was establishing itself as a modern science and changing the way marble sculptures were viewed.