The Source of Titian's Rape of Europa Author(s): Donald Stone Jr. Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol.

54, No. 1 (Mar., 1972), pp. 47-49 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3048932 Accessed: 26/01/2010 12:53
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The Source of Titian's Rape of Europa*

DonaldStone, Jr.

Arthur Pope was so convinced that Titian drew his inspiration for the Rape of Europa (Fig. i) from the Metamorphoses that he reproduced Ovid's text at the beginning of his study "as a proper introduction to the picture."l However, to juxtapose Ovid and Titian is to accentuate the large number of elements in the painting which are absent from Ovid's account. The final scene described in the Metamorphoses includes only Europa and the bull: "The god little by little edges away from the dry land, and sets his borrowed hoofs in the shallow water; then he goes further out and soon is in full flight with his prize on the open ocean. She trembles with fear and looks back at the receding shore, holding fast a horn with one hand and resting the other on the creature's back. And her fluttering garments stream behind her in the wind."2 There is no allusion here to the women on the shore, the dolphin, the arrows, the Cupid on the dolphin and the mountains which Titian chose to include in his masterpiece. Others have sensed the insufficiency of Ovid's text to explain paintings of Europa. In his attempt to identify the source of diverse elements in Maarten de Vos's work on this subject, B. H. M. Mutsaers found himself obliged to propose Moschus as the origin of Europa's billowing scarf, of the putti, Lucianus, and of the temple in the background, Nigidius Figulus.3 Erwin Panofsky has summarily rejected Mutsaers's proposal as having any implications for Titian, asserting that Titian's picture "does not presuppose his acquaintance with such more recondite authors as Moschus."4 Panofsky (page 165) is content to explain the presence in Titian of the mountains, the women, the dolphin, and the Cupid by noting that these elements were present in other representations of the scene, for example Bernard Salomon's woodcut in the Metamorphose d'Ovide figure'e of I557 and Diirer's Rape of Europa. The pictures in question do contain these features but, like Ovid, each has some components of Titian's picture without presenting them all. There is no dolphin, no Cupid in Salomon; there are no mountains in Durer (and Europa's crouched position on the bull is significantly different from the woman Titian painted). All of these elements, however, are contained in the description of a painting of the rape of Europa in Achilles Tatius's
* I am indebted to Glen Bowersock, Naomi Miller and especially to the Director of the Gardner Museum for their help in preparing this paper. 1 Arthur Pope, Titian's Rape of Europa, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, I960, 15. 2 Ibid., 2. The translation is that of Frank Justus Miller (Cambridge,
1916).

novel of Leucippe and Clitophon and I should like to propose here that Titian's painting was inspired - on many levels - by Achilles Tatius. By referring to Moschus as a "recondite" author, Panofsky appears to doubt that Titian would have been led in any way to read a work like Achilles' novel. Yet, it is possible to show not only that a vernacular text of Achilles' novel was available to Titian at the time he began the Rape of Europa, but also that interest in this novel was somewhat particular to Titian's Venice. The first vernacular translation of Achilles Tatius was done in Italian and printed in Venice in I546. Although it reproduces only Books v-vIIi (and, therefore, not the description of Europa which opens the novel), this translation has value for us because the author proves to be none other than Lodovico Dolce - the same Venetian who in 1538 had dedicated a paraphrase of Juvenal's Sixth Satire to Titian5 and who in I557 would publish a Dialogo della pittura which devotes several pages to Titian's life and works. After Dolce had expended such effort with the novel, it is difficult to believe that he was indifferent to the second vernacular translation of Achilles' novel which appeared in Venice also, in 1550, the work of Francesc' Angelo Coccio.6 It contains the complete text of the novel and is the work I believe Titian read or was shown by his friend Dolce. Here is the pertinent passage from Coccio's translation, printed some four years before Titian is thought to have begun the Europa.7 I have italicized the elements which reappear in Titian's painting: JVella estremitc del prato, doue la terra arriuaua al mare, I'artefce haueuadipintealcunedonzelle, il cui sembiante mostraua & letitia & timore, & haueuano la testa cinta di ghirlande, & le chiome sparse sopra gli homeri, & le gambe tutte nude & discoperte, si la parte di sopra, che e tenuta ascosa dalla uesta; si ancho la parte da basso, che suol esser coperta dalle scarpe: percioche con la cintura si haueano alzate le uesti insino al ginocchio. pallide nel uolto, le guancie ristrette, gli occhi uolti uerso il mare, la bocca alquanto aperta, quasi per la paura douessero mandar fuori la uoce. le mani estendeuano quasi uerso il toro. estremita del mare tanto auanti, quanto entrauano nella
4 Erwin Panofsky, Problemsin Titian, New York, New York University

voering van Europa," Album DiscipulorumProf. Dr. J. G. Van Gelder, Utrecht, Haentijins Dekker and Gumbert, 1963, 63-65.

3 B. H. M. Mutsaers, "Literaire Bronnen voor Maarten de Vos' Ont-

Press, I969, I65. 5 See J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle, The Life and Times of Titian, 2nd ed., London, i88I, 427. 6 Achille Tatio/Alessandrino/Dell' Amoreldi Leucippe et di Clitophontel nuouamente tradotto/dalla linguagreca [colophon on fol. II4V] II Fine/de gli otto libri/D'Achille Tatio Alessandrino,/tradotti AngeloCoccio/da per/Francesc' Iano,/Et nvovamente stampati/da/Pieroet Fratelli de Nicoline/da Sabio/In 'enetia/MDL. I quote the Houghton Library copy *OGC Ac46. Ei55I. 7 Panofsky believes the work was begun "shortly after 1554" (Problems in Titian, I65).

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THE

ART

BULLETIN

i Titian, Rapeof Europa. Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (photo: Museum)

l'onda auanzaua un poco sopra la parte dinanzi del piede. al correre toro,ma per rispetto del mare pareuacheuolessero temessero di proceder piu auanti. il color dell'acqua marinaera di duesorti: dalla parte uersoterraera alquanto rosseggiante & azurro, & in quella uersoil pelago ui era eleuati sopra dipintala spuma,i scogli, & le onde.i scoglierano la terra.la spuma gli biacheggiar scogli. le faceua d'ogn'intorno ondegonfiates'inalzauano, & poi rotte intornod i scogli si in risolueuano ispuma.Nel mezzo del mare era dipinto il toro portato dalle onde. et doue la sua gamba piegata s'inalzaua; l'onda ascendeua in alto a guisa di montagna. siedea suoi sopragli homeri sedeuala giouane,noncomehuomo cauallo ma in lato: hauendonella destraparte accomandati il i amendue piedi, con la sinistra mano tenendo corno,nella guisa che il caualcatore suol regger il freno, & in uero che il toro, quasi co'l freno fusse gouernato, era riuolto piu in quella parte, che dalla mano era tirata. II bustodel corpo era ddlla giouaneinsino alle parti uergognose copertodi una da camiscia. indi le parti inferiori del corpo da bianchissima una ueste di porpora erano ricoperte, lefattezze dellequali l'ombilico soprala detta uesteappariuano: profondo,il uentre
disteso, i fianchi ristretti, & quel ristrettoperuenutoin acutezza si allargaua. Le mammelle erano dal petto alquanto rileuate, & la sopraposta cintola stringeua insieme le mammelle, & la camiscia, laquale era specchio del suo corpo. le mani amendue erano distese, l'una al corno, & l'altra alla coda: & da ogni lato con amendue teneua

sospeso il uelo sopra la testa, sparso intorno d gli homeri, & il seno del uelo gonfiandosiper tutto si allargaua. & questoaueniua per il uentofattoui dal dipintore.Ella sedeuasopra il toro a guisa di naue solcante il mare, quaso usando il suo uelo in uece di uela. intorno al toro saltauano i delphini,scherzauano gli Amori, & potria dire, che ui fussero ancho dipinti i lor mouimenti. Amore picciolo fanciullo tiraua il toro, haueua le ali tese, da lato gli pendeua la pharetra, teneua il fuoco, & era riuolto quasi uerso Gioue, & rideua, quasi schernendolo, che per sua cagione era diuenuto toro (fols. I -2v). Except for the transfer of Cupid's arrows from a quiver to putti flying overhead, the disappearance of the purple "ueste," a restationing of Cupid, and a reduction of the numerous dolphins to one dolphin and one fish, the scene is Titian's: here are the women on the shore with outstretched hands, the varying colors of the sea, the cliffs rising from the land and whitened by mist, a Cupid, arrows, Europa's billowing scarf,8 and her white garment, not extending beyond the "parti uergognose," and transparent enough to reveal her navel and large thighs. Even Achilles' careful account of her position on the back of the bull - not with a leg on each side but with her feet on the bull's right side and her left hand on his horn - is reproduced by Titian. To learn that the painting possesses such a source, that Titian did not necessarily bring together in his own way disparate elements from other portrayals of Europa, must heighten as well as circumscribe our evaluation of the

Achilles Tatius's description of the scarf and the playful dolphins suggests that he was very familiar with Moschus's earlier account.

THE

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49

imitator's talent. On one hand, Achilles' detailed description of Europa's position on the bull makes unnecessary Smart's contention that Titian combined the Metamorphoses and the Fasti when painting Europa; but, on the other, nothing here contradicts Smart's further contention that Titian's arrangement of Europa's arms and the shadow over her face constitute a remarkable adaptation of the Toro Farnese.9Similarly, if in the light of Achilles, we cannot quite agree with Panofsky's view (page I65) that the changing color of the water is one way in which the painting "remains original," the colors used for the water are not those given by Achilles Tatius and their interplay with the rest of the canvas is particular to Titian. It is also not insignificant that Titian suppressed certain features of the Greek text. The tradition of 'c`Kpaats (translating pictures into prose) represents only one facet of the stylistic affectation that creates a constant tension between drama and preciosity in the Greek novel. While the gestures of the women left behind give a tragic tone to the scene, the gamboling dolphins, the feet "accomandati" undercut the soberness of the event. Titian suppressed the dolphins as he suppressed the opening of Achilles' description of the meadow from which the bull had fled. A comparison of Titian's work with those of Durer and Vos, which people the scene lavishly, also points up the starkness and drama of Titian's composition. If Mutsaers's sources prove too "recondite" for some art historians, it is nonetheless true that the great detail and the mievrerie in Vos resemble a certain strain of late Greek writing. At the same time, Titian has kept the smiling Cupid of Achilles and in this figure lies a final aspect of Achilles' influence. Achilles Tatius opens his novel with this painting because it makes the narrator marvel at the fact that sky, earth, and sea obey a small child. He is overheard by a young man who, to prove love's sway, then begins the story of Leucippe and Clitophon. Even if Titian did not place Cupid in front of the bull, I find it hard to escape concluding that Cupid's presence in the Rape of Europa parallels in meaning the role of the "picciolo fanciullo" in Achilles and must be seen as somewhat more than "a comedy echo of the pose and action of Europa" (Pope, page I8). In a recent article, Maurice Shapiro suggests that Titian's treatment of the theme of love's triumph over god and woman is set within a studied representation of such emotions as fear, joy, and desire, which Shapiro relates to Stoicism.10 If he is correct, then even at this final turning, we find Achilles' text to have been only the important beginning of a process whose end belongs entirely to Titian. Harvard University

9 See Alastair Smart, "Titian and the Toro Farnese," Apollo, June, 1967, 420-31. 10 "Titian's Rape of Europa," Gazette des Beaux Arts, LXXVII, 1971, 109-16.