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Analysis Of 'The Rape Of Europa'

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“The Rape of Europa” is a painting by the Italian artist Titian (Tiziano Vecelli), painted between 1560-62 in Venice. The work is inspired by a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses about one of Zeus’ abduction of Europa. Zeus, also known as Jupiter, transforms himself into a beautiful white bull and joins a herd grazing near the seashore. When Europa came over to him, Zeus enticed her to climb onto his back. He then seized the opportunity and rode into the sea towards Crete while Europa clung to him in terror. In Titian’s painting, Europa holds on to one horn while gazing back over her shoulder toward the shoreline, waving a red silk veil to attract the attention of her companions. Nearby, cupid chases after them on a dolphin, adding …show more content…

in June of 1896. It currently hangs in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. Titian’s piece became the crown jewel of Gardner’s growing museum collection, where today, it sits in the “Titian Room”: a whole room with the main focus on “The Rape of Europa”. The two giants of High Renaissance painting in Venice were Giorgione and Titian. Both men studied with Giovanni Bellini and developed his style of exploring new forms of figural composition, increased the subtleties of texture and lighting, and produced a new language of landscape paintings. Compared to painting in Florence and Rome, Venetian artists preferred fuller, fleshier figures and softer, more atmospheric lighting. Titian’s subject matter covered a wide range of iconography, including altarpieces, individual Christian works, mythological scenes, allegories, and portraits. His pictures are also characterized by a richness in color, with many varieties of warm reds, and his use of glazes. Titian traveled around Italy a lot and had many friends in high places that introduced him to court. His patrons were among the most influential of the time, including members of nobility like Philip II of Spain as well as Charles V, who knighted Titian in 1533.
King Philip II of Spain commissioned Titian to make all seven of these painting based on the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses poems about

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