The painting shows a coastal scene with Europa being carried away through the water by a bull while her friends remain on shore with expressions of horror.

The use of an ancient myth to impart a contemporary thought and his portrayal of the scene using the High Baroque style are two strong aspects of the work.

Rembrandt developed an interest in the classical world early in his life while in Amsterdam[2] which was a growing business-oriented center, and where he found work with great success.

Out of three hundred sixty completed works, five displayed tales from the Metamorphoses, five depicted goddesses, and a Carthaginian queen, of which only five represented myth subjects.

[5] Specx had established a trading center in Japan in 1609, served as the governor of Batavia (former name of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital), and later returned to Holland in 1633.

He quoted an unnamed ancient source that stated that the abducted princess was representative of "the human soul, borne by the body through the troubled sea of this world".

[11] Van Mander theorized that the bull, which is Zeus in the classical tale, is really the name of a ship that bore Europa from her eastern home of Tyre to the western continent that adopts her name.

[13] Rembrandt's familiarity with the literary and classical nature of the story is evident by the bull as both god and ship, and the harbor installation in the background.

This detail strengthens the parallel between Tyre and the Dutch ports, as Rembrandt attempts to connect the story to Specx's livelihood.

Artistically, The Abduction of Europa reflects the attitudes and interests of Rembrandt and other Dutch painters during the early to mid seventeenth century.

Many art historians agree that Titian was a huge influence on Rembrandt, including Westermann who connects the two artists in their comparison works of Danaë.

She writes, "When the Secretary to the Staudthouder asked the two young painters [Rembrandt and Jan Lievens] why they did not undertake the journey to Italy to study the great monuments there, and especially the works of Raphael and Michelangelo, they replied that there was an abundance of Italian art already to be viewed in Holland.

[23] Philip II of Spain commissioned the piece, and Titian uses the psychological depiction of Europa's horror and nudity to reflect the sexual violence of the moment.

His work is mindful of the patron, painted in the popular High Baroque style, and incorporates the influences of earlier artists like Titian.