“When I wrote for the interpretive project ‘Reconsidering Titian,’ I tried to capture the many different questions that arise for me when I look at Titian’s Rape of Europa. As an art historian and a professor, I find myself relaying facts of its commission … But these facts don’t really capture the power of this painting, an equally crucial aspect. It is one we can all see, and, perhaps for those of us brave enough, feel. Of all the poesie on display, Europa is the most violent, the most frightening,” Professor Shawon Kinew writes in “The Shimmering Quality of the Rape of Europa” on the @gardnermuseum’s Inside the Collection Blog.
This past year Kinew participated in two interpretative projects for the public at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for their exhibition “Titian: Women, Myth & Power”—the post above and an audio and written label that appears next to Titian’s Rape of Europa in the gallery. Both explore Europa’s relationship to imperialism and aesthetics. You can read more on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum website.