This is one of several casts of Paul Manship's sculpture entitled "The Flight of Europa"
Wikipedia's article (
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"The Flight of Europa is a bronze Art Deco sculpture created by American artist Paul Manship in 1925. Copies are held by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Columbus Museum, Columbus, Georgia, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It depicts the Greek myth of Europa being abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull.
Description
The Flight of Europa is an elegant and modern depiction of an ancient act of violation. The strong diagonals make even the massive bull seem to float. Europa herself sits calmly, legs crossed, as Cupid whispers in her ear. Inspired by murals he saw in Crete, Manship added dolphins under the bull to represent the couples' destination. The delicate linear detailing that became Manship's hallmark can be seen in her hair, Zeus' mane, and Cupid's wings. Without the base, the statue stands 20.75" (52.7 cm.) tall. At least one copy has "P. MaNSHIP ©" inscribed on the base. The statue is bronze, though some copies have been gilded, and they stand on stone bases of agate,marble, or onyx."
Wikipedia (
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"In Greek mythology Europa... was the mother of King Minos of Crete, a woman with Phoenician origin of high lineage, and for whom the continent Europe was named. The story of her abduction by Zeus in the form of a white bull was a Cretan story; as classicist Károly Kerényi points out, "most of the love-stories concerning Zeus originated from more ancient tales describing his marriages with goddesses. This can especially be said of the story of Europa".
Europa's earliest literary reference is in the Iliad, which is commonly dated to the 8th century BC. Another early reference to her is in a fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, discovered at Oxyrhynchus. The earliest vase-painting securely identifiable as Europa dates from mid-7th century BC."
As for the moon, Wikipedia (
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"Europa ..., is the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter, and the sixth-closest to the planet. It is also the sixth-largest moon in the Solar System. Europa was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei[1] and was named after Europa, the legendary mother of King Minos of Crete and lover of Zeus (the Greek equivalent of the Roman god Jupiter).
Slightly smaller than Earth's Moon, Europa is primarily made of silicate rock and has a water-ice crust and probably an iron–nickel core. It has a tenuous atmosphere composed primarily of oxygen. Its surface is striated by cracks and streaks, whereas craters are relatively rare. In addition to Earth-bound telescope observations, Europa has been examined by a succession of space probe flybys, the first occurring in the early 1970s."