MEDUSA
Caravaggio, Testa di Medusa, 1597, Uffizi, Florence, oil on canvas mounted on wood.
Ana Luisa Gutierrez
Looking at the world of mythology through the lens of art, we can be amazed by Medusa, the Gorgon whose gaze turned mortals to stone. Medusa, one of the three Gorgon sisters in Greek mythology, was originally a beautiful maiden. However, her vanity and pride elicited fury in the goddess Athena, who transformed her hair into venomous snakes and cursed her gaze to turn anyone who saw it into stone. After becoming a ‘monster’ and being banished, Medusa’s presence became a sign of doom. Not long after, Perseus sought Medusa as part of a quest to kill her and claim her head as a trophy. He managed to decapitate Medusa while she slept, and from her severed neck Pegasus was born as well as the giant Chrysaor. Although robbed of her life, Medusa's head still had powers that were used by Perseus as a weapon (Morford et. al., 2020).
For this piece, we will dive into Caravaggio's painting of Medusa. Painted in 1597, this canvas represents the myth of a monstrous creature with snakes for hair and a gaze that can petrify anyone. The painting was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte from Rome, and is believed to have had the intention to warn people against the dangers of vanity.
We are able to observe that this painting shows a more human side of Medusa; where she shows emotions like fear, unlike the Greek myth that portrays her as the monster to be feared. This may allow the audience to empathize with Medusa as well as stop viewing her as the villain. Although this art piece has received many different opinions, some of them suggest that Caravaggio was able to make the viewers self-reflect after analyzing this piece, which elicits a compassionate response after understanding that there are also darker sides to human (and divinities’) nature which would be what causes the terror in Medusa’s gaze.
As a curator, I view Caravaggio's Medusa as a timeless portrayal of myths and how they are always created with some truth in them. This painting can represent how one’s own gaze can work against them and how even ‘villains’ have a story to be told (Hedgecock, 2019). Medusa’s story acts as a haunting reminder of how vanity, ego and envy are feelings that no one can escape from, even divinities, and how they can affect those around them for as long as we view others with our personal judgemental gaze only.
Works Cited
Alban, Gillian M. E. The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women’s Fiction : Petrifying, Maternal and Redemptive. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.
Hedgecock, J. (2019). Cultural Reflections of Medusa: The Shadow in the Glass (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/10.4324/9780429060960. Accessed February 13, 2024.
Morford, Mark, and Robert J. Lenardon. Classical Mythology. 11th ed., Oxford University Press, 2020.
Wilk, Stephen R. Medusa Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon. Oxford University Press, USA, 2000.