The Rape of Europa

Europa clings to the neck of a powerful bull as it swims through choppy waves, her clothing billowing behind her like a sail. On the distant shore, her companions wave their arms in distress near a grazing herd of cattle. The sky is filled with swirling clouds, and a small figure appears in the heavens watching the abduction.

This engraving belongs to a series illustrating Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a text that served as a primary source for Renaissance Neoplatonists who interpreted pagan myths as allegories for the soul's attraction to the divine. Within the Haarlem Mannerist circle, such images were understood through the moralized and philosophical framework established by theorists like Karel van Mander.