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| Keywords: Sketch of a French Empire style clock. Rape of Europa.jpg en Watercolour gouache and pen and ink on laid paper Numbered 7 Dimensions 68 cm by 48 3 cm To be executed in alabaster; gilt bronze and enamel dial; black marble platform Europa with an arch of drapery over her head atop the Bull on the point of being borne out to sea and carried off to Crete In the Classical mythological tale of the Rape of Europa she was beguiled by the seemingly placid nature of Zeus Jupiter disguised as a white bull was abducted to Crete and ravished by the god who had by then resumed his normal form The bull whose form Zeus had taken became the zodiacal constellation Taurus The Europa myth had an obvious resonance in the Restoration period alluding to the pan-European disruption of the Napoleonic wars In addition the composition for the sculptural group on this clock is loosely based on the painting by Guido Reni looted from Rome by Napoleon and still in Paris at the Louvre for the first years of Louis XVIII �s reign In view of Louis XVIII �s antipathy to the Allies � intention in 1815 to recover the art works appropriated from other countries by Napoleon and to which he only consented in 1817 the modelling of a clock after a looted picture was a pointed political statement in support of the king http //watercolours-drawings com/details asp subGalID 5 index 19 author between 1815 1820 PD-Art French Empire style mantel clock Sketches Europa mythology | ||||
