by Ek van Zanten
Hilversum and Heemstede, 1962
Approx. 120/150 cm
In the greek mythology, a Phoenician princess, Europa, was charmed by a bull and at the end of the story, the bull swam with her to Crete where he revealed himself as Zeus. They had two sons: Castor and Pollux.
I found this story inspiring to create a three-dimensional statue, because the European countries were forming a union called Europa. He presented the statue to the city of Hilversum. Ek and the famous conductor Bernard Haitink both subsequently received the city’s cultural prize in 1963.
It sometimes makes sense to create more than one statue. Europa and the bull was created a second time for the city of Heemstede.