Europa sits on a architrave, wearing a crown set with pearls, she holds a sceptre in her right hand and an orb in her left, to one side, stands the globe, to the left, a bust of a woman wearing a laurel wreath on a pedestal, to the base a painter’s palette, a compass, set square, wooden board and sheet of music, behind which a white horse, beneath the horse’s body lies a Roman breastplate, shield and arrows, rectangular stone base with gilt rim, height 25 cm, length 23 cm, some restoration, to inside of base small firing crack, Meissen, underglaze blue sword mark with dash, mid-19th cent., model no. 860, former no. 24, red painter no. 25, model by Johann Friedrich Eberlein 1746-1747, reworked by J. J. Kändler 1771-1772 (Ru)

Lit: Meissen für die Zaren, Porzellan als Mittel sächsisch-Russianr Politik im 18. Jh., exh. cat., Dresden 2004, pp. 90, 91, ill. 142; this group from the series known as the Four Continents depicts Europe, Asia, America and Africa and was a commission from Tsarina Elizabeth in summer 1745. It is evident from the figure’s attribute, that the artist identified Europa with Minerva, the goddess of the sciences and arts, and goddess of strategic warfare, as her armour testifies.