Valentin Serov
Zeus, who fell in love with Europa, appeared to the Princess and her friends walking on the seashore in a form of a beautiful bull. The girls had fun playing with the bull horns decorating it with flower garlands. Finally, Europa decided to sit on the back of the bull-Zeus. He rushed into the sea and took the Princess to the island of Crete, where she became the wife of Zeus and later gave birth to three sons-heroes. Serov retreated from the original source, telling about the white bull with Golden horns: his brown bull reminds of the paintings of red-figure vases. Bull-Zeus looks at the beautiful Europa with almost alive coveted look. The girl's pose is extremely real. Serov managed to convey the complex range of feelings of Europa. In all her pose there is no fear. The way she grasped the bull's horn speaks of her humility with her fate and her trust in Zeus. At the same time, her hunched figure, her head bowed low, her arm stretched forward towards the shore, where her friends and family remained, all this conveys the bitterness of parting with her homeland.
We present today's work thanks to the Russian State Museum. We present something special with them next month... enjoy!
P.S. It wasn't only Europe who was a Zeus lover. Get to know about others here.