Plate 21: The Rape of Europa (Iupiter tauri imagine Europam rapit), from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'
1606
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 1/8 × 4 5/8 in. (10.4 × 11.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.3872
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold Plate 21: *The Rape of Europa (Iupiter tauri imagine Europam rapit)*, a dynamic etching by Italian artist Antonio Tempesta from his renowned 1606 series illustrating Ovid's *Metamorph*. Measuring just 4 1/8 × 4 5/8 inches, this intimate print captures the mythological moment when Jupiter, disguised as a majestic white bull, abducts Phoenician princess Europa from the shores of Tyre. Tempesta, a master of-era printmaking, populates the scene with swirling figures, frolicking maidens, and the powerful bull charging into the sea, evoking the drama of classical antiquity. Drawn from Ovid's...
About the Artist
Antonio Tempesta · 1555–1630
Antonio Tempesta (1555–1630), known as 'Il Tempestino,' was a Florentine painter and printmaker whose extraordinary output of approximately 1,700 etchings made him one of the most influential printmakers of the early Baroque period. Born in Florence and trained under Santi di Tito and the Flemish master Joannes Stradanus, he enrolled in the Accademia del Disegno in 1576 before relocating to Rome i...