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Abducting Europa: Metamorphosis and Misadventure in Art

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Abducting Europa: Metamorphosis and Misadventure in Art Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2018 The hidden language of art: symbol and allusion Abducting Europa: metamorphosis and misadventure in art Mark Ledbury (University of Sydney) 9/10 May 2018 Lecture summary: From Mosaic to Matisse, the Abduction of the Princess Europa by Jupiter changed into a bull is a favorite narrative for painting. This lecture explores the strange tale, and in particular the currency among painters of its retelling as part of Ovid’s great work, the Metamorphoses – the lecture explores the deep legacy of Ovid’s tale in art, from Medieval Moralising texts and images through great Renaissance and Baroque paintings, to the heyday of eighteenth-century mythological painting. Why did this strangely tragi-comic and yet deeply violent tale appeal so widely to painters, and how might we tease out the less obvious differences and emphases of different generations of painters, who include Titian, Rembrandt, Veronese, and François Boucher, as well as Gauguin and Matisse. Slide list: 1. Pieter Paul Rubens, Venus and Adonis (c.1630, Oil on Canvas, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art) 2. Julio Romano, “Metamorphoses” frescoes, 1524 Chamber of Ovidio, Palazzo de Te, Mantua, Italy) 3. Diana and Acteon from a set of tapestries representing scenes from Metamorphoses - French, Gobelins Manufacture, Paris: c.1680-1710, New York, Metropolitan Museum 4. Titian, Tityus (Ca. 1565. Oil on canvas, Madrid: Prado) 5. Nicolas Poussin, Echo and Narcissus (c.1630, Oil on Canvas, Paris: Louvre) 6. Two pages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses Moralized (British Library, Ms Royal MS 17 E IV, (Late 15th Century, Dutch) 7. Etienne Falconet, Pygmalion et Galathée (1763, Marble: Baltimore, Walters Art Museum) 8. Auguste Rodin , Pygmalion et Galathée, (modeled 1889, carved ca. 1908–9, Marble, New York, Metropolitan Museum) 9. Anon, after Michelangelo, Leda and the Swan (oil on canvas, c.1530, London: National Gallery) 10. Cornelis Bos, after Michelangelo, Leda and the Swan ((Engraving, 1530-1556, London, British Museum) 11. Coin, Phoenicia,, Sidon. 58-57 B.C. AE 21 mm. Laureate head of Zeus r. Reverse: Europa riding bull 12. House of Jason, Pompeii. Europa and the Bull, (Wall Painting, Ist Century AD, Pompeii) 13. Iluminations from MS Arsenal Ovide Moralisé, Paris ca. 1330 Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms 5069, fol. 78r and v. Europa and the Bull/ Christ led to Calvary. Proudly sponsored by 14. Titian, The Abduction of Europa (c. 1559-1562, Oil on Canvas, Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) 15. Farnese Bull Group, (Unearthed 1546, Roman Copy of a Hellenistic sculpture, marble with many alterations, Napoli, National Archaeological Museum) 16. Martin de Vos, THe Abduction of Europa (c.1590, Oil on Canvas, Bilbao, Museo) 17. Paolo Veronese, The Abduction of Europa, (Oil on Canvas, 1578, Palazzo Ducale, Venice) 18. Guido Reni, The Abduction of Europa (1637-9 Oil on canvas , National Gallery, London) 19. Claude Lorrain, Coast View with the Abduction of Europa, 1645, Oil on Canvas, Los Angeles, Getty Museum 20. Rembrandt, The Abduction of Europa (1632, Oil on Panel, Los Angeles, the Getty Museum) 21. François Boucher, The Abduction of Europa (1732, Oil on Canvas, London, Wallace Collection) 22. François Boucher, The Abduction of Europa (1747, Oil on Canvas, Paris: Louvre) 23. Francois Boucher, first sketch for The Abduction of Europa (c.1746, Red Chalk on Paper, Edinburgh, NGS) 24. Noel Coypel, The Abduction of Europa (Oil on Canvas, 1722, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts) 25. Paul Gauguin, The Rape of Europa (Woodblock, 1899, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) 26. Paul Gauguin, The Rape of Europa ( Print, 1928 posthumous printing, Art Gallery of New South Wales) 27. Henri Matisse, The Abduction of Europa (Unfinished, c.1928-9, Canberra, National Gallery of Art) Reference: Bailey, Colin B, Carrie A Hamilton, Philippe Le Leyzour, Kimbell Art Museum, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (França), and Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Loves of the Gods: Mythological Painting from Watteau to David. New York; Fort Worth: Rizzoli ; Kimbell Art Museum, 1992. Boucher, François, N.Y.) Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, Detroit Institute of Arts, and Réunion des musées nationaux (France). François Boucher, 1703-1770: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 17, 1986-May 4, 1986, the Detroit Institute of Arts, May 27-August 17, 1986, Reunion Des Musées Nationaux, Grand Palais, Paris, September 19, 1986-January 5, 1987. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986. Brown, Sarah Annes. The Metamorphosis of Ovid: From Chaucer to Ted Hughes. London: Duckworth, 2002. Fehl, Philipp P, and Paul F Watson. “Ovidian Delight and Problems in Iconography: Two Essays on Titian’s Rape of Europa.” Storia Dell’arte / Dir. Da Giulio Carlo Argan., 1976, 23–30. Ovid, Joseph Addison, William Congreve, John Dryden, and Alexander Pope. Ovid. [Metamorphoses and Epistles.] Translated by Dryden, Pope, Congreve, Addison, and Others. A.J. Valpy: London, 1833. Ovid, Frank Justus Miller, and G. P Goold. Metamorphoses. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976. Ovid, and Ted Hughes. Tales from Ovid: Twenty-Four Passages from the Metamorphoses. London: Faber and Faber, 1997. Panofsky, Erwin. Problems in Titian Mostly Iconographic. London: Phaidon, 1969. Pope, Arthur, and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Titian’s Rape of Europa: A Study of the Composition and the Mode of Representation in This and Related Paintings. Cambridge: Published for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum by Harvard University Press, 1960. For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/hidden-language/ .
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