The Rape of Europa (Claude Lorrain)

The Rape of Europa is an oil on canvas painting by Claude Lorrain, from 1655.

With its pendant The Battle of the Milvian Bridge, it is now in the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow.

The work was painted in Rome, with sketch 136 in his Liber Veritatis equating to it.

[1] Below that sketch is the inscription "facto al pio Cardinal […] creato pero giusto pap […]" ("made for the pious cardinal […] elected pope […]") - the word "Cardinal" is very close to the edge of the sheet and it seems likely that the name of the commissioner was cut off when binding the scattered sheets of the diary together.

He was Fabio Chigi, elected Pope Alexander VII on 7 April 1655.