Der Raub der Europa

In 1747 the official in charge of the king's buildings organised a competition to shake French painting out of what he saw as decorative frivolity and back toward serious history subjects. Boucher, the most fashionable decorator of the age, sent in this Rape of Europa. The story from Ovid has Jupiter take the form of a gentle white bull, coax the princess Europa onto his back, then carry her off across the sea to Crete. Boucher keeps only the charm. His Europa lounges among attendants and flowers by a calm shore, the bull tame beside her, and nothing warns of the abduction to come. Cupids hover overhead, and one leans down to drape a garland over the bull's horns.