Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn's The Abduction of Europa (1632) is one of his rare mythological subject paintings. The piece is oil on canvas and now located in the J. Paul Getty Museum. The inspiration for the painting is Ovid's Metamorphoses, part of which tells the tale of Zeus's seduction and capture of Europa. The painting shows a coastal scene with Europa being carried away in rough waters by a bull while her friends remain on shore with expressions of horror. Rembrandt combined his knowledge of classical literature with the interests of the patron in order to create this allegorical work. The use of an ancient myth to impart a contemporary thought and his portrayal of the scene using the High Baroque style are two strong aspects of the work.
The Abduction of Europa is Rembrandt's reinterpretation of the story, placed in a more contemporary setting. He developed an interest in the classical world early in his life while in Amsterdam. Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam in 2018
Jacques Specx, of the Dutch East India Company, commissioned Rembrandt to complete The Abduction of Europa. Specx had established a trading center in Japan in 1609, served as the Governor of Batavia (former name of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital), and later returned to Holland in 1633. The painting certainly was in Specx's possession, along with five other portrait pieces, which Rembrandt was popularly known for completing.
The subject and its allegorical meaning can be attributed to the patron, the artist, and a Belgian art biographer, Karel van Mander, whose theories entertained Rembdrant. Van Mander's book Het schilder-boeck released a second edition in 1618. The book was produced in Amsterdam and included details about many Netherlands painters. Rembrandt surely would have read this book, both because of its importance and its location, and familiarized himself with van Mander's theories and interpretations of Ovid's myths. Van Mander commented on Europa's abduction, with a European spin to it.
Ovid's account of the abduction of Europa is found in Book II 833-75 of Metamorphoses. Europa is a princess of Tyre, who is playing with her court on the coast when a beautiful bull appears. Europa mounts the bull, which quickly whisks her away into the ocean. When Europa and her friends notice the bull retreating further into the sea without coming back, the bull transforms into Zeus and carries her to Mount Olympus on the island of Crete. Rembrandt's painting is set just as Europa is whisked away, as seen by the bull and young lady in the ocean in the painting.
Art historians, like Mariët Westermann and Gary Schwartz interpret the painting as a reference to Specx' career. The painting includes details from Ovid's story that strengthen the location of the tale as well as tie it to Specx' life. The African driver and non-European coach in the shadows to the right allude to the exotic Phoenician coast. There is a port in the background, a reference to the busy port of the Tyre. Karel van Mander looked for an applicable meaning to the work that constructed a moral concept to the classical literature. He quoted an unnamed ancient source that stated that the abducted princess was representative of "the human soul, borne by the body through the troubled sea of this world". Van Mander theorized that the bull, which is Zeus in the classical tale, is really the name of a ship that bore Europa from her eastern home of Tyre to the western continent that adopts her name.
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