Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Europa.
The gallery
The Rape of Europa
Titian, c. 1560–1562
Titian's late poesie sends Europa over the waves on Zeus' bull, her companions stranded on the shore — the Phoenician princess's abduction as Venetian colour and terror. Oil on canvas, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.
The Abduction of Europa
Rembrandt, 1632
Rembrandt's rare mythological oak panel stages Ovid's bull-ride with a Dutch landscape behind it: Europa mounted, her attendants crying out as Zeus carries her toward Crete. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
The Rape of Europa
Peter Paul Rubens, 1628–1629
Rubens copies and recharges Titian's invention for the Spanish court: Europa's white flesh against the dark bull, putti and sea spray framing the ride that founds Crete. Oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid.
The Rape of Europa
Guido Reni, 1637–1639
Reni's cool Bolognese classicism sets Europa on the bull against a clear sky — the abduction as poised, almost serene motion, commissioned for Władysław IV Vasa. National Gallery, London (Mahon loan).
The Rape of Europa
Francisco Goya, 1772
Young Goya paints Europa's bull-ride with Rococo lightness — the Phoenician princess still aloft on Zeus, the myth that named a continent restaged for an eighteenth-century Spanish wall.