From the start of his reign Philip had been the champion of Catholic orthodoxy and this increased as he retreated within the walls of the Escorial, administering his vast empire. Nevertheless, he had been educated in the culture of Renaissance humanism, based on a revival of interest in antiquity. The classical myths were central to all humanists, with Ovid’s Metamorphoses one of the most popular interpretations of the myths, its success greatly enhanced by the spread of printing and an increase in literacy.
The six paintings, Danae, Venus and Adonis, Perseus and Andromeda, Diana and Actaeon, Diana and Callisto and the Rape of Europa, represent some of the most famous myths of antiquity. Danae’s father King Acrisius had been told by an oracle that he would be killed by his daughter’s son so he shut her up in a tower. Jupiter, King of the Gods, desired the princess and Titian chose to depict the moment at which the God, descending in a shower of gold, is about to ravish her. Acrisius was unwilling to provoke the wrath of the gods by killing his offspring, and cast Danae and her son Perseus to sea in a wooden chest. Much later Perseus was participating in the Greek Games at Larissa and accidentally struck Acrisius on the head and killed him, thus fulfilling the prophecy.
The second painting in the series relates to the myth of Venus and Adonis, the tragic story of the goddess of love who was smitten by Cupid’s dart and fell passionately in love with the handsome Adonis. In Titian’s painting Venus tries to prevent the young mortal from setting off for the hunt, fearful of the tragedy to come. Her fears are realized when Adonis is mortally wounded by a boar, his blood being turned into an anemone.
The subject of the third painting is closely related to Danae, the myth of Perseus freeing Andromeda. The princess’ mother Cassiopeia, Queen of Ethiopia, had the temerity to boast that her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids (sea nymphs, daughters of the sea god Nereus), whereupon Neptune sent a sea monster to ravage the coast of Ethiopia. To appease the monster, King Cepheus consulted the oracle which advised him to sacrifice his daughter, who was left chained to a rock. Titian depicted Perseus, who had just slain the Gorgon, flying to the rescue of the princess, who is about to be devoured by the sea monster. Having slain the monster, the victorious hero married Andromeda. She was to gain immortal fame after her death when Minerva placed her among the constellations of the northern sky.
The next two paintings in the series are a pair of myths depicting the goddess Diana the huntress. The first tells the tragic story of Diana and Actaeon, the hunter who stumbled unwittingly upon the goddess and her nymphs bathing naked in a stream. This dramatic moment is captured unforgettably by Titian who shows a naked Diana punishing the unfortunate Actaeon by transforming him into a stag. The hunter fled in terror but was pursued by his own hounds, who caught him and tore him apart (the subject of Titian’s Death of Actaeon). Diana and Callisto is another dark myth featuring the goddess Diana. Jupiter seduced her nymph Callisto, disguised as Diana herself. Once again Titian chose the most dramatic point in the story, the moment when Callisto, bathing in a stream, is revealed to be pregnant and expelled by an enraged Diana from her presence. After Callisto had given birth to Arcas, Juno transformed her into a bear. Mother and child were later placed by Jupiter among the stars and named Ursa Major and Minor.
The origin of the Rape of Europa describes how Jupiter, King of the Gods, on Mount Olympus, spied the beautiful Princess Europa (whose brother Cadmus was Actaeon’s grandfather), daughter of Agenor, King of Tyre and Sidon, Phoenician cities on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, and decided to seduce her. Transforming himself into a bull, Jupiter appeared on the seashore and captivated the princess, who garlanded him with flowers and caressed his flank. Eventually she felt bold enough to mount his back, whereupon the bull entered the sea and swam across to the island of Crete, the moment that Titian chose to depict in his painting. Once on the island Jupiter resumed his normal form and made love to the princess who became Queen of Crete and gave birth to three sons: Minos, Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon, destined to be judges of the underworld. Jupiter later created the constellation Taurus in the shape of a bull (in modern times the smallest of the planet Jupiter’s Galilean moons was named after Europa). Europa’s brother Cadmus was also to play a major part in Greek mythology, bringing the alphabet to mainland Greece.
Interestingly, Philip II identified himself with the figure of Jupiter. As King of the Gods, the deity was associated with imperial propaganda surrounding the king, dispensing justice and punishing those who threatened his authority. Both Philip and his father had been immensely impressed when they visited the Palazzo del Te in Mantua, the creation of Giulio Romano for Federico Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, a close ally of the Habsburgs (he commissioned Correggio’s Loves of Jupiter, now in the possession of Philip and a key influence on Titian’s poesie), where the Fall of the Giants was seen by contemporaries as an allegory of the emperor crushing his Protestant foes. When Charles and Philip toured the Netherlands in 1549, a series of triumphal arches were erected in their honour, showing them with the world on their shoulders and in the company of the Gods of Olympus.
The myth of Europa and the Bull was a very ancient one based on the island of Crete, where the bull was associated with strength and fertility. Far back in antiquity the islanders placed the youthful Bull God on a par with the Sun. The Cretans celebrated games involving bulls and bull fights, linked to fertility rites, and there are ancient images of youths playing dangerous games with bulls, grabbing their horns and vaulting on to their backs. The ancient Greeks acknowledged this obsession and had a saying that Cretan women preferred bulls to men. One of the most powerful Greek myths is that of the Minotaur.
The myth is known as the Rape of Europa, with its modern connotations of violence, but this is not how it is normally portrayed, either in literature or in art. There are two distinct parts of the story: the scene on the sea-shore, where Europa, often depicted as a regal bride, either garlands the gentle bull, or is seated on his back. In the second part of the myth she is taken away across the sea to Crete, often in a state of ecstasy, by a virile bull. For most writers and artists the first part of the myth has traditionally proved more popular, but Titian preferred the second part which allowed a more dynamic interpretation.
The earliest literary source of the myth is in the Iliad, dating back to at least the eighth century bc, where Europa is the daughter of Agenor’s son, the ‘sun-red’ Phoenix. The most famous account of the myth in antiquity, however, is in Ovid’s Metamorphoses where the Roman poet emphasizes the beauty and gentleness of the bull, and the way that he is garlanded with flowers by Europa and her maidens on the sea-shore before she mounts him and is taken across the sea to Crete. The bucolic poet Moschus and the rhetorician and satirist Lucian followed Ovid’s lead in portraying the bull as a likeable creature, who seduces a willing Europa. Lucian linked Europa to the moon-goddess Astarte, sacred to the Phoenicians:
But according to the story of one of the priests this temple is sacred to Europa, the sister of Cadmus. She was the daughter of Agenor, and on her disappearance from Earth the Phoenicians honoured her with a temple and told a sacred legend about her; how Zeus was enamoured of her for her beauty and changing his form into that of a bull carried her off into Crete. This legend I heard from other Phoenicians as well; and the coinage among the Sidonians bears upon it the effigy of Europa sitting upon a bull, none other than Zeus.
The Alexandrian Greek Achilles Tatius, author of The Adventure of Leucippe and Clitophon, also set the myth in Sidon, where his two characters saw a painting of Europa. What is interesting in his description of this painting is the number of details it contains which reappear in Titian’s painting: Europa’s drapery blowing in the wind, and the cupids that accompany her, flying through the air and swimming in the sea. We know that Titian’s friend Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador to Venice, owned a copy of Achilles Tatius translated from the Greek by Lodovico Dolce and Francesco Angelo Coccio.
A few ancient writers took a different line on the myth. The Greek historian Herodotus, always keen to see such stories as historical reality, saw the rape as a retaliatory attack by the Minoans, who seized Europa in revenge for the kidnapping of Io, princess of Argos. The Roman lyric poet Horace took a highly personal line, analysing the psychology of the victim; he considered Europa to be a tortured soul who feels deep shame and contemplates suicide at her action.
During the Renaissance, when these ancient myths were much studied, the fifteenth-century philosopher Angelo Poliziano, living at the court of Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence, and a leading exponent of Neo-Platonism, which explored the union between man and the divine, followed Horace’s lead in describing the fearful side of the myth. His physical description of Europa, grasping the bull by the horn, bears some similarity to Titian’s depiction and it seems likely that the artist would have known of Poliziano’s text.
It was Ovid’s Metamorphoses, however, with its graphic and light-hearted description of the loves of the gods and mortals, that was to prove the most popular source for artists. The first illustrated copy of the Metamorphoses, published in Venice in 1497, showed to a wider audience what a rich source of visual imagery his myths possessed. A number of translations proved an instant hit when they were published in the sixteenth century.
The myth of Europa, so popular with ancient authors, has also provided a constant source of inspiration for artists. It has been portrayed many times in every conceivable type of material, ranging from vases, mosaics, terracottas, tomb reliefs and coins in antiquity, to paintings, prints, sculpture, majolica (glazed or enamelled earthenware much produced in the Renaissance, particularly in Central Italy) and on cassoni (wedding chests) in the Renaissance, and later on porcelain and enamel snuff boxes.
Shortly before Titian painted his version, Correggio, Parmigianino and Dosso Dossi, three of the greatest Emilian painters of the early sixteenth century (the towns of Bologna and Parma in the province of Emilia-Romagna were major art centres), followed the prevailing norm in painting the myth as an Arcadian idyll. This essentially sedentary image was adopted by Titian’s fellow Venetian, Paolo Veronese, who depicted Europa as a princess, full of keen expectation, bejewelled as befits a regal bride. Veronese’s painting, which hung in the Doge’s Palace in Venice, was to prove immensely popular and influential.
Titian also knew the myth well and had the chance to discuss it with his literary friends, who would have told him of its source. In addition, he had numerous artistic precedents to draw on. As so often, he created an entirely original composition, one of the boldest in his entire oeuvre. Titian wanted to portray the key moment when Europa realizes her fate. The fact that art historians still argue whether the painting is a tragic or light-hearted interpretation of the myth shows the ambiguous nature of Titian’s interpretation. His composition is highly original and it seems exceedingly unlikely that he could have been aware of two similar representations of the myth in late fifteenth-century Florence: a terracotta relief from Luca della Robbia’s workshop and a beautiful pen and ink drawing by Filippino Lippi. They portray Europa on the back of the bull, her clothes and hair flying in the wind.
Titian himself must have felt very pleased with the painting, since he supervised the production of a copy in his workshop which was offered to the Emperor Maximilian (a Habsburg cousin of Philip II) in 1568 (the painting has been lost, though there is a copy by the seventeenth-century Flemish painter David Teniers). There is also a copy which belonged to the fourth Marquess of Hertford, a major benefactor of the Wallace Collection. But the most important copy of the Titian was executed by Rubens, who was privileged to study the painting in the Alcázar on his second visit to Madrid in 1628–9. Painters of the Bolognese school, in particular, seem to have been strongly influenced by the Titian composition, and Guido Reni’s version of the subject shows the same combination of fear and ecstasy. A late sixteenth-century bronze group by Giambologna displays a similar interest in drama and movement. Rembrandt’s version of the subject, though the composition differs from that of Titian, shares the same emotional intensity and the immediacy of the drama as Europa gazes back fearfully to the safety of the shore.
In general, however, the majority of later artists preferred to follow the lead of Veronese in their depictions of the myth, showing the princess as an almost childish figure, playfully picking flowers, while the beautiful, white bull is a creature from a fairy tale. She has tamed the bull with her flowers, and rides off to her fate full of optimism and, sometimes, even triumphant. Her maidens may be scared and shocked, but the princess is serene. In the eighteenth century, painters loved to depict light-hearted allegories of love, and numerous painters, notably Watteau and Boucher, with his seductive nudes, were inspired by the Veronese. Similarly, porcelain manufacturers, in particular, made free use of the image of Europa, a pretty woman, sometimes crowned, often playing with the bull. There is never any question of violence or rape.
Curiously, there does not seem to be a direct connection between Europa and the continent of Europe. The origin of the continent’s name is uncertain, possibly deriving from the Greek word eurus meaning wide or broad, and ops, meaning eye of face, hence wide-eyed or broad of aspect. The Ancient Greeks originally regarded Europa as an area comprising the province of Thrace but, by the time Strabo wrote his 17-volume Geographica in the late first century bc, he included the whole continent from the Straits of Hercules to the river Don. In the eighth century Christian forces fighting Muslims invading south-west France were known as Europenses, and Europe became associated with the Latin Church. A popular cartographic depiction of the continent in the sixteenth century as Europa Regina showed the continent from the Habsburg perspective as a standing queen, with the Iberian peninsula as her head wearing a crown and Bohemia as her heart (heretical Britain and Scandanavia were excluded). Europa Regina is surrounded by water, an allusion to the mythical Europa carried over the sea to Crete.
Recently, the myth of the Rape of Europa has been adopted by the European Union, and the image of the princess being abducted by the bull has become a semi-official symbol of the institution, a supranational personification of the European region. An image of Europa has appeared on a number of coins and banknotes. The image itself is open to numerous interpretations, mostly concerning the theme of peace and unity triumphing over hardship, with the bull seen as a dangerous animal, undermining this concept of peace and unity, or as a liberator, freeing Europa by taking her across the sea from Sidon/Asia to Crete/Europe.
There have been many translations of the myth, and one written by A. E. Watts in 1954 best conveys Ovid’s original.
The poem begins with Jupiter commanding Mercury:
‘Dear son, and servant faithful to obey,
Swoop down to earth post-haste your wonted way;
And turning leftward, where those regions are,
That men call Sidon, ’neath your mother’s star,
Drive from the hills, and bring beside the sea
The royal herd that crops the upland lea.’
So said, so done: the herd grazed before
The mountain heights, was headed to the shore,
Just where the great king’s daughter, day by day,
With train of Tyrian maids was wont to play.
’Tis ill when love and lordship in one mind
Together dwell. His sceptred state is hurled
The three-forked fire, whose nod convulse the world,
Among the herd, transformed in voice and mien,
Treading the sward, a comely bull was seen,
In colour like untrodden snows, that last,
Unmelted by the south wind’s watery blast.
The muscles bulged upon his neck; the fall
Of dewlap was superb; the horns were small;
Seeming handmade, such work as craftsmen do,
They gleamed like agate as the light shone through;
A brow of peace, wherein no terror lie,
A calm and unintimidating eye.
‘How fair, how friendly!’ thought Agenor’s child;
Yet feared at first to touch him, though so mild,
Soon, to her lover’s joy, she nearer drew,
And gave his milk-white mouth sweet flowers to chew.
He kissed her hands, as earnest of the sum
Of hoped-for joys, scarce waiting what’s to come;
And now on grass he leaped and played; now rolled
On sand, to show his white on green and gold;
Offering the maiden, as her fear grew less,
His breast to stroke,
His horns with flowers to dress;
And she, unweeting what form could hide,
Upon his back at last made bold to ride.
Then, sidling seaward, that four-footed cheat
Came step by step where land and water meet;
Then out to sea! While the fair prize he bore
Looked back in panic at the fading shore.
One hand was on his horn; one pressed his back;
Her robes, wind-wafted, fluttered in her track.
From the point of view of Titian’s interpretation, what is interesting is how little of the text relates to Europa’s actual rape, the moment of maximum drama that Titian chose to depict. Most of Ovid’s description concerns the appearance of Jupiter as a bull on the seashore and how he is feted and garlanded by the princess and her maidens. Watts’ translation of Ovid referring to Jupiter as ‘that four-footed cheat’ makes clear the god’s intentions, and Europa ‘looking back in panic at the fading shore’ seems to indicate that she is fearful of her abduction. However, an earlier reference to her wish ‘of hoped-for joys, scarce waiting what’s to come’ states quite unequivocally that she is a willing accomplice, and this seems to sum up Titian’s image of Europa where her desire overcomes any initial fear.