Europa1.0028

Titian (Vecellio Tiziano), "The Rape of Europa," ca. 1559, Gardner Museum, Boston; part of Poesie series painted for Phillip II of Spain. (A letter to Ph. from Tiz. Apr1562 mentions it as "seal" of the Poesie series.)

Titian clearly and fully derives details from Ovid Met. 2.835 - 75 and 6.103-07: bull is white and garlanded, she holds one horn (Ovid says "with her right hand"), she protects her feet from the water, This latter is a detail from Fasti 5.613-14: "often the god deliberately (prudens) lowered his back into the waves, so that she would cling more tightly about his neck." Titian's bull makes eye-contact with you, because he knows you know what he is doing. This painting was copied several times, but by Titian himself and by successors (including Rubens). Europa's immodest (?) pose accentuates the narrative moment, as does the telling gleem in the bull's eye. Waterhouse was bothered by Europa's "pose of an ungainliness which only fear could sanction." Panofsky noted that "in addition to fear, [Europa shows] a kind of rapture befitting a mortal maiden carried away by a god. ... A Danaë seen from above." She does seem to be aware of the cupids. Is Europa looking at them or toward her sisters on the shore? What's with the scarf? (Fasti 5.609)

ML p. 409