Interpretation
Danger sometimes lurks within Claude’s idyllic settings, as in this etching, which is a variation on the artist’s first of five known paintings of The Rape of Europa (1634, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth). Derived from the Roman author Ovid’s celebrated Metamorphoses, the scene shows the god Jupiter disguised as a white bull, bearing the unsuspecting princess Europa on his back before carrying her out to sea.
Information
- Title
- The Rape of Europa
- Object Number
- 2019-455
- Maker
- Claude Lorrain
- Medium
- Etching
- Dates
- 1634
- Dimensions
- 19 × 26 cm (7 1/2 × 10 1/4 in.)
- Credit Line
- Bequest of Duane E. Wilder, Class of 1951
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