1617-1618, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Peter Paul Rubens, Head of Medusa Peter Paul Rubens, Head of Medusa, c.
Caravaggio, Medusa, 1595-1596, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. The second version, shown here, is slightly bigger (60×55 cm) and is not signed though often dated 1597. This work is privately owned, signed, and now known as Murtola. About the first version, the 17th-century poet Gaspare Murtola wrote:įlee, for if your eyes are petrified in amazement, she will turn you to stone. Wikimedia Commons (public domain).Ĭaravaggio painted two versions of Medusa, the first in 1596 and the other around 1597. Caravaggio, Medusa-Murtola Caravaggio, Medusa-Murtola, 1596, private collection. Here are the five most famous paintings depicting Medusa. When Perseus beheaded her, Pegasus, a winged horse, and Chrysaor, a giant wielding a golden sword, sprang from her body.Īlso in more modern art, the subject of Medusa’s head became quite popular. During that time, Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon. Since Medusa was the only one of the three Gorgons who was mortal, Perseus was able to slay her while looking at the reflection from the mirrored shield he received from Athena. He received a mirrored shield from Athena, gold, winged sandals from Hermes, a sword from Hephaestus, and Hades’ helm of invisibility. The gods were well aware of this, and Perseus got help.
In most versions of the story, she was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who was sent to fetch her head by King Polydectes of Seriphus because Polydectes wanted to marry his mother. Benvenuto Cellini, Perseus with the head of Medusa, 1545-1554, Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy. In Ovid’s telling, Perseus describes Medusa’s punishment by Minerva (Athena) as just and well earned. In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet Ovid, Medusa was originally a ravishingly beautiful maiden, “the jealous aspiration of many suitors,” but because Poseidon had raped her in Athena’s temple, the enraged Athena transformed Medusa’s beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. Head of Medusa, Second half-second century, Tepidarium of Dar Zmela house, Sousse Archaeological Museum, Sousse, Tunisia. Her superpower was simple – gazers upon her face would turn to stone. She was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Her name in Ancient Greek means “guardian, protectress”. Medusa was one of the scariest creatures that Greek mythology created.
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