Rembrandt · 1632
The Abduction of Europa
Rembrandt
The Abduction of Europa
1632
Rembrandt van Rijn's 'The Abduction of Europa' (1632) depicts Zeus, transformed into a white bull, carrying the Phoenician princess Europa off toward Crete — unusually set at the moment of departure from land rather than the sea crossing. Painted at the end of his Leiden years and the beginning of his Amsterdam career, the picture fuses Dutch mythological history painting with a distant city skyline. Acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 1995, it is the only autograph Rembrandt mythology on permanent view on the West Coast.
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Image source: Wikimedia Commons