Bruges is one of the best preserved Medieval cities in Europe. It is a popular tourist destination with much public sculpture, most of which is traditional figurative sculpture of religious significance or depicting historic Belgian figures. However it also has a number of quirky modern figurative sculptures that one might expect to be out of character for the city, but somehow blend in really well.
This sculpture was sculpted by Belgian artist Jef Claerhout in 1982. According to the English translation of his page in the Dutch Wikipedia “
Jef Claerhout
( Tielt , 1937 ) is a Belgian artist . From him are many bronze statues or artworks in Bruges Ommeland and Tielt and region (province of West Flanders ).
Metalworking belonged to the family tradition, so it was quite natural that Jef metal sculptures made. With various welding techniques and deformation in metal he tells the amazing stories his grandfather told him as a child: folk tales, in which humor, irony and mythology incorporated into fabulous figures, animals, birds and horses.”
Bruges and Swans and Zeus
There are many swans that live on the nearby canal and they are used as a symbol of Bruges. This website http://www.in-bruges.co.uk/lovers-lake-in-bruges/lovers-lake-in-bruges.html states “In 1488 the people of Bruges had executed one of the town administrators belonging to the court of Maximilian of Austria. The town administrator ,Pieter Lanchals, family coat of arms featured a white swan. Legend has it that Maximilian punished Bruges by obliging the population to keep swans on their lakes and canals till eternity.”.
The Greek myth of Zeus and Leda has been incorporated into the sculpture. In Greek mythology, Zeus, the King of Gods, in the form of a swan seduced the mortal woman Leda, the wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta. Leda then gave birth to a number of children including the famed Helen of Troy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda_(mythology)
In this sculpture the naked form of Leda is sprawled in the horse drawn carriage and is embracing Zeus in his form of the swan.
Bruges horse and carriage rides.
Horse and carriage rides have been a popular tourist attraction for many years and this sculpture has one at its heart. The only difference is that it is being pulled by the mythical winged horse, Pegasus and is rising into the air as Pegasus beats his wings.
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Pegasus had taken thunder and lightning to Zeus at Mount Olympus who later transformed him into the constellation Pegasus and placed him up in the sky.
The driver of the carriage in this sculpture is Prometheus who created mankind out of clay, and stole fire for their use. He is shown in modern dress and wearing a bowler hat.
The statue is situated in the small square of Walplein. The square has a number of cafes and bars and is located close to the tourist attraction of Beguinage and one of the places where the horse and carriage rides can be picked up.
The Extraterrestrial Locations
As one might expect there are numerous extraterrestrial locations named after the characters in the sculpture.
Zeus
As Zeus was the King of The Gods you might expect he would have many locations named after him, but it wasn’t until 1988 that the asteroid Zeus was named.
Asteroid 5731 Zeus is a near earth asteroid with an estimated diameter of between 2.1 and 4.7 km and was discovered by C. S. Shoemaker at Palomar Observatory.
Leda
Leda has had an asteroid, satellite of Jupiter and a galaxy named after her.
Asteroid 38 Leda is a main belt asteroid and the 160th largest known. It was discovered in 1856 by J. Charconac at Paris who discovered a total of 6 asteroids.
Leda is the ninth and smallest moon of Jupiter, discovered in 1974 by Charles Thomas Kowal at Mount Palomar.
He opposed giving the moon a name, preferring the older system of numbering the moons. However when he was overruled he chose Leda in line with the convention that the moons ending with the letter ‘a’ have an orbit in the same direction as Jupiter.
LEDA 074886 is a dwarf galaxy with a rare rectangular shape, located at a distance of about 70,000,000 light-years (21,000,000 pc) in the Eridanus constellation.
LEDA 074886 has a mass of around 109 solar masses (Compared to the Milky Way's mass of about 1012 solar masses). It is a recent discovery, that had its details widely published in March 2012.
Prometheus
Promethus has an asteroid and inner moon of Saturn, a volcano on a Jupiter moon and a Martian region named after him.
Asteroid 1809 Prometheus It is a small main belt asteroid that has never been studied beyond its discovery.
The Saturnian moon Prometheus was discovered in 1980 by Voyager 1 probe. It was subsequently photographed by the Cassini spacecraft in December 2009 and is a small elongated moon measuring about 136 by 79 by 59 km. It is believed that it is a porous icy body. Prometheus acts as a shepherd satellite for the inner edge of Saturn's F Ring. Recent images from the Cassini probe show that the Promethean gravitational field creates kinks and knots in the F Ring as the moon 'steals' material from it.
Jupiter’s moon Io has a volcano named Prometheus which was discovered in 1979 by the Voyager 1 probe. It was named after Promethus in his role as a fire God.
It consists of a 28-kilometer (17 mi)-wide volcanic pit named Prometheus Patera and a 100-kilometer (62 mi)-long compound lava flow, all surrounded by reddish sulfur and circular, bright sulfur dioxide volcanic plume deposits. It is situated on Io’s hemisphere that faces away from Jupiter.
Promethei Terra is a large albedo region of Mars covering 3300 km at its broadest extent. The area is a heavily cratered highland region. Recent research using Shadow Radar on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has provided evidence that the region may contain glaciers. If so this area would be a likely landing area for a manned mission to Mars with its ready supply of water.
Pegasus
Pegasus has 2 galaxies and a constellation named after him.
Pegasus is a constellation in the northern sky placed there by Zeus. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations.
The Pegasus Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy is in the Pegasus Constellation and is a satellite galaxy of Andromeda. It was discovered in 1999 by various authors on the Second Palomar Sky Survey (POSS-II) films.
The Pegasus Dwarf Irregular Galaxy is in the Pegasus Constellation and is a satellite galaxy of Andromeda. It was discovered in 1950 by A.G. Wilson, an American astronomer based in the Palomar Observatory. This galaxy is presumed to be the primary location of the science fiction television series Stargate: Atlantis.