Rape of Europa

Charles FitzRoy is a direct descendant of Charles II and the uncle of the Duke of Grafton. Educated at Eton and Magdalene College Cambridge, he trained as an art historian under Professor David Watkin. He runs Fine Art Travel Ltd and is a director of art agents Robert Holden Ltd.

This book is not just the history of one of the world's greatest paintings; it brings to life all the stages of its long journey from Venice through Spain, France and England and finally to Mrs Isabella Stewart Gardner's glorious Fenway Museum in Boston - I was fascinated every inch of the way John Julius Norwich An absorbing account of how a single, highly coveted artefact embodies the zigzags of political power, economic clout and cultural ambition through succeeding ages Literary Review Takes the reader from the inbred, art-loving Spanish royals of the 16th century to the 500-piece art collection of the dissolute Duke of Orleans who was to lose it - and his head - during the French Revolution, to the wealthy art-buyers of 19th century Britain. Independent

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroduction1 Titian2 Philip II as Ruler and Patron of the Arts3 The Myth of Europa4 The Spanish Habsburg and the Alcázar in Madrid5 The Dukes of Orléans and the Palais-Royal in Paris6 The Taste for Titian in Nineteenth-Century Britain7 Isabella Stewart Gardner, Bernard Berenson and the Creation of her MuseumConclusionBibliographyFamily Trees of Habsburg and OrléansIndex