The Abduction of Europa

Rembrandt painted The Abduction of Europa in 1632, one of his few explicitly classicizing mythological compositions and a painting that demonstrates his engagement with the Italianate fashion that dominated Northern European court painting. The myth — Zeus in the form of a bull carrying off the Phoenician princess Europa across the sea — had been treated by Titian in a celebrated painting (now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts) that Rembrandt may have known through engravings. The luminous golden palette, the elaborate setting on a rocky shore, and the careful rendering of Europa's companions create a surface beauty unusual in Rembrandt's oeuvre. The painting dates from his first year in Amsterdam, when commercial pressures encouraged him to demonstrate range across multiple genres. The J. Paul Getty Museum acquired the canvas as part of its systematic building of a Dutch Golden Age collection, making it one of the finest Rembrandt mythological works in an American collection.

The dramatic contrast between Europa's terrified figure on the bull and the ornate golden carriage left behind on shore creates a vivid narrative, with the luminous, warm palette characteristic of Rembrandt's early Amsterdam style.