Frontispiece from "Liber Studiorum"

Designed, etched and engraved by Joseph Mallord William Turner British
 Engraver J. C. Easling British
 Publisher Joseph Mallord William Turner British

Not on view

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.

Frontispiece from "Liber Studiorum", Designed, etched and engraved by Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, London 1775–1851 London), Etching and mezzotint; first state of five (Finberg)

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