This sculpture was made in 1545 and shows Perseus after he took the head of Medusa.

Outside the Uffizi Museum (in the Loggia del Lanzi of the Piazza della Signoria) you can also admire a bronze sculpture of Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini.

Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Antonio Canova in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Vatican Museums,.

A painting by Peter Paul Rubens in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna,.

A painting of Leonardo da Vinci (that has not survived),.

Famous artists have used her story as the inspiration for their artwork. Medusa in art? Medusa has been a popular subject in art. When the head of Medusa was cut off, two creatures arose from Medusa’s body: Pegasus, a winged horse, and Chryasor, a giant with a golden sword.

Perseus ultimately gave the head of Medusa to the goddess Athena, who placed the head on her shield (which is what is depicted in this painting). He used her head as a weapon afterwards as it retained its power to turn people who looked at it into stone. The Greek hero Perseus, a demigod, used a shining shield that he got from the goddess Athena to avoid looking at her directly and succeeded to cut off her head. Medusa had a horrific facial expression that could turn people (or according to some, only men) who looked at her into stone. However, after Poseidon (the god of the sea) made love to her in Athena’s temple, Athena (the goddess of wisdom and war) changed her beautiful locks into living, venomous snakes (in other mythological stories the three sisters were already born with snakes on their heads). They were daughters of Phorcys (a sea god) and his sister Ceto (a sea goddess).Īccording to the Roman poet Ovid, Medusa was a beautiful young woman. Both Stheno and Euryale were immortal, but Medusa was not. Who is Medusa? In Greek mythology, Medusa was one of three sisters (Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa) who were often referred to as Gorgons. Do you see how Caravaggio used these contrasts to show the head of Medusa as a three-dimensional object? It is also interesting to have a closer look at Caravaggio’s use of light and shadow in this painting. As the painting is created on a shield, Caravaggio’s idea was that this painting actually represents the view of the shield as held by Perseus just after he killed Medusa. You can see this realization by the horror in her eyes. She realizes that her head is separated from her body, but that she is still conscious. This painting shows the moment that Medusa is looking at the reflective shield that Perseus is holding (which according to the myth actually happened just before she got beheaded). The blood streams out of her head as she has just been killed by the Greek demigod Perseus.

I count at least eight snakes on her head. The snakes are watersnakes from the Tiber river as those were the best type of snakes Caravaggio could find nearby. Instead of normal hair she has living, venomous snakes on her head. With her glance she could turn people who looked at her into stone.

Medusa is a figure described in Greek mythology. What do you see? A depiction of the head of Medusa painted on a circular and curved wooden shield. Commissioned by? Cardinal del Monte, who gave it as a gift to Ferdinando I de Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany

Medusa painting