Apuleia in Search of Apuleius (unpublished plate, Liber Studiorum)

Designed and etched by Joseph Mallord William Turner British

Not on view

This is Turner's etched first stage of work on a print he intended to include in the series "Liber Studiorum" (Latin for Book of Studies), but never published. The composition derives from a premium-winning painting shown at the British Institution in 1814, now at the National Gallery, London. In the foreground, Apuleia, a figure Turner invented as the wife for a shepherd mentioned in Ovid's "Metamorphoses," unveils herself to a group of shepherdesses. The landscape is enlivened by a multi-arched classical bridge that spans a river near a temple, and the composition embodies Arcadian qualities associated with Claude. The finished plate was sold in 1873 with other unpublished Liber compositions, and subsequently printed and circulated.

Apuleia in Search of Apuleius (unpublished plate, Liber Studiorum), Designed and etched by Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, London 1775–1851 London), Etching

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