Bewildered, the abducted Europa clings with one hand to a horn of the god Jupiter, who appears disguised as a bull in order to seduce her. She raises the alarm to her companions on the shore with her other hand, frantically waving a length of red silk that flashes yellow in the sunlight. The women left behind return her call for help with their own signals of distress. A cherub races after the kidnapped princess on a dolphin. 
Jupiter raped Europa on the island of Crete, where their son founded the Minoan dynasty, the ancestor of all European civilizations. Europa’s Middle Eastern and African heritage and her forced migration were as integral to the myth of Europe’s origins as they are to its identity today.
Titian’s Rape of Europa was the crown jewel of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s collection. It was the first authentic painting by Titian to reach the United States. In the museum, she surrounded it with an eclectic and highly personal grouping of objects, including a textile with a tassel pattern echoing the bull's tail from a ball gown by her favorite fashion designer, Worth of Paris. What other connections can you find?