Famous Paintings: Rape of Europa
Posted by Susan Benford
Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese - Rivals in Renaissance Venice, has opened to much fanfare at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I've yet to see the show, which Newsweek touts as "one of the most breathtaking old-master exhibitions you'll ever see", but the meeting of these three masters is a timely occasion to discuss one of my favorite famous paintings, Titian's Rape of Europa.
But first a bit about Titian (officially Tiziano Vecellio), who was born around 1488 into a family of modest means living in the mountains north of Venice. He studied in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini, Venice's most prominent artist in the 15th century. Titian's genius (and lasting legacy) came from integrating Bellini's work, known for its sharp delineation of form, clarity, and pure tones, with Giorgione's style and thematic innovations, topped with Titian's expressive brushwork and thick paint application. Indeed, Titian and Giorgione shared workspace from approximately 1500-1510, so that their similarity of style in Titian's early career is hardly shocking. It has led to confusion about the attibution of various famous paintings, most significantly The Concert Champetre, or Pastoral Concert - it was recently attributed to Titian after long being attributed to Giorgione.
After Giorgione's death from the plague in 1510, Titian became the most famous painter in 16th century northern Italy. Intent on transforming the status of the painter from lowly craftsman to heralded creative genius, Titian achieved this - he was the first painter to attain international recognition - and has a reputation that remains unshakeable some five centuries later. Part of his brilliance was in mastery of two venues popular with 16th century rulers: portraiture, where Titian brilliantly melded realism with idealism, minus heavy-handed flattery, and mythological paintings such as Rape of Europa.
Europa, 1560-62Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), Italian (Venice), ca. 1485/90-1576Oil on canvas, 178 x 205 cm. Isabella Steward Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts.
Painted in 1559 - 1562 for Phillip II, King of Spain, this grand painting portrays the abduction of Europa by a determined Jupiter, disguised as a bull. Europa is a reclining nude both submissive and resistant, appearing both abandoned with desire and frightened, beneath a calm blue sky with threatening storms. The putti, or Cupids, in the sky and atop the dolphin are mesmerized watching the tension between the lovers, while the nymphs, vague on the distant shore, watch and wave helplessly. Both her generous, billowing flesh and Jupiter's tail seem to quiver with excitement at the pending sexual act.
This famous artwork lives at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (information here), where I've had the pleasure of its frequent company. Each time I visit it, I feel that Titian's bull's eye - inescapably leering, impossible to avoid - is the most intensely painted of any eye in Western art, human or animal. It's riveting, dares you not to stare back, and is not to be missed.
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"To tell the trust I do not like Raphael at all. It is in Venice that the finest things are to be found... It is Titian who carries the day". Velasquez
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