TIZIANO Vecellio
(b. 1490, Pieve di Cadore, d. 1576, Venezia)

Rape of Europa

1559-62
Oil on canvas, 185 x 205 cm
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

In the beginning of the 1560s, Titian painted several mythological paintings for Philip II, among them the Rape of Europa. These painting reveal a profound sense of tortured despair.