Plate 21: The Rape of Europa (Iupiter tauri imagine Europam rapit), from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'

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 epic poem of transformations, the myth symbolizes divine passion and the origins of Europa's namesake continent. Tempesta's etching technique—using acid to bite intricate lines into a copper plate—allowed for remarkable detail in such a compact format, making these prints accessible luxury items for 17th-century collectors across Europe. His fluid, energetic style blends Mannerist elegance with emerging Baroque vitality, emphasizing movement and emotion. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, 1951), this work exemplifies how Renaissance artists revived ancient tales through innovative print media, bridging literature, myth, and visual storytelling for generations of admirers.

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...