The Frontispiece to Liber Studiorum
J. C. Easling|Joseph Mallord William Turner|Joseph Mallord William Turner
May 1812 · Etching and mezzotint; first state of five (Finberg) · Drawings and Prints
Turner created this print to introduce his "Liber Studiorum" (Latin for Book of Studies), a series of seventy prints published between 1807 and 1819 that span the range of landscape's thematic potential. The artist etched and engraved the central image of Zeus transformed into a white bull as he abducts Princess Europa from Tyre, using the scene to symbolize Historical and Mountainous landscape. Easling added mezzotint to the border whose imagery refers to Turner's other categories: vegetation and a basket of eggs refer to Pastoral landscape; fish, oars and a sail suggest Marines, and a low-relief arcade stands for Architectural landscape. Turner's EP category (an abbreviation he never defined in print, but likely intended to indicate Elevated Pastoral) is evoked by classical ruins and a white peacock.
- Artist
- J. C. Easling|Joseph Mallord William Turner|Joseph Mallord William Turner
- Date
- May 1812
- Medium
- Etching and mezzotint; first state of five (Finberg)
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Credit line
- Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928
