The kidnapping of Europe

Country: Germany

Manufactory: Scheibe-Alsbach

Date of establishment: mid-twentieth century

Size (cm): 27*26

Porcelain Story

There are porcelain works that evoke neither emotions nor associations. They are just beautiful, that's all. Funny and all. Interested in some minor detail - and that's it ... And there are people like this - attractive and beauty, and meaningful details, and images that make you look at the work for a long time, remember everything connected with this image, re-experience these memories.

To be honest, if you scrupulously follow the legends about the abduction of Europe, the daughter of the Phoenician king Agenor, by the omnipotent god Zeus, who fell madly in love with her, then a lot of things in this porcelain composition, probably, may cause some questions among people who know ancient history well. Well, for example, why didn't the German masters convey the dynamics of the abduction? Why is Zeus, who turned into a mighty bull in order to get closer to the object of his adoration, depicted here so meek and submissive?

Everything is not so, my friends, everything is far from being so. Here, the moment preceding the abduction of the beauty of Europe is just recorded (on the eve of the abduction, by the way, she had a dream about how she would be taken away from Asia, who nursed her). After all, Europe herself approached the wonderful bull, she herself stroked his silky hair, she herself sat down on the wide back of the giant bowing before her ... She still does not know what will happen in an instant when he rushes into the waves of the sea and, like a dolphin (the comparison is drawn me from old legends), cutting through the sea surface, rushes to the Greek island of Crete.

Yes, and pay attention to Zeus himself in the form of a bull hiding before the abduction - he is only waiting for the moment when the royal daughter is more comfortable on his back ...

By the way, it was in Crete that Europe gave birth to three children from Zeus. By the way, it was there that, after parting with her beloved, she married the childless king Asterius, who adopted and then raised these children. By the way, it was in Crete, where we visited several times with our children, that I first heard this wonderful legend. And, by the way, it was after our trip to Crete that our little Anya, seeing her dad returning from a trip, uttered her first word in her life. And it was not ''mother''. And ''wawa''. Because it was in Crete, while playing football, that on the last day I hurt my leg so much that I came to my senses for a long time after returning home.