# The Rape of Europa [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [VOS, Marten de]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on oak panel, 134 x 175 cm ## Commentary The Rape of Europa c. 1590 Oil on oak panel, 134 x 175 cm Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao The theme represented by de Vos in this painting was related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses. The god Jupiter, in love with Europa, daughter of the Phoenician King Agenor, turned into a bull to abduct her and take her to Crete, where he possessed her. The young girl can be seen in the background, before the abduction, playing on the shore with her companions while Mercury glides in the sky surrounded by cupids, one of whom holds Jupiter's rays in his hands. Martin de Vos, having attained the full maturity of his style, was inspired by a <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/t/tiziano/08b/5rape\_eu.html'\)" href="/html/t/tiziano/08b/5rape\_eu.html">composition painted by Titian</a> between 1559 and 1562. The painter reveals his skill in the execution of grounds and of anecdotal details, in the purest Flemish tradition, and in the portrayal of the female nude. This figure is impeccably rendered in sfumato, and the light seems to emerge from the flesh through soft transparencies. The yellow robe and the undulating red cloth grant the composition its colour and movement. This work shows a perfect synthesis of Italian taste and the painter's refined Flemish training. ## Related artworks - [Allegory of the Seven Liberal Arts]() - [Christ Triumphant over Death and Sin]() - [Nativity]() - [Portrait of Antonius Anselmus, His Wife and Their Children]() - [Return from the Flight to Egypt]() - [Scene from the Life of the Virgin]() - [St Luke Painting the Virgin Mary]() - [St Paul Bitten by a Viper on the Island of Malta]() - [The Emperor's Toll]() - [The Family of St Anne \(detail\)]() - [The Family of St Anne]() - [The Marriage at Cana]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()