The Head of Medusa. Oil on canvas.
27 x 46 1/2 in. Vienna.
Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Painted by Rubens with sections by Frans Snyders,
dates between 1610 and 1617.
Medusa's beauty was described in Ovid:
Medusa was astonishingly fair;
She was desired and contended for--
So many jealous suitors hoped to win her.
Her form was graced by many splendors, yet
There was no other beauty she possessed
That could surpass the splendor of her hair--
Medusa's beautiful flowing hair "strewn with flowers" is replaced by deadly snakes. In Ruben's depiction of the head of Medusa some of her original hair makes its way into the painting. Her gaze is haunted, but looks away, perhaps at Perseus' shadow before he picks up her head to be used as a weapon itself. Ruben's interpretation tells the story by what the painting leaves out: there is no Perseus, not Pegasus springing forth from the blood of her head, no body at all. The life force that surrounds her decapitated head makes it clear that, although decapitated, her power lives on.
For the renaissance viewer,
the decapitated head might represent the triumph of the mind or intellect
over evil and impiety, especially of the body. Since the story engages
the nature of vision, the viewer is also implicated in any reading.
Ruben's painting is an invitation to read the Head of Medusa from a variety
of perspectives. She is the rich subject of
art
because of all the nuances to her story. A feminist
reading finds Medusa an emblem of male power over female threat.
Going one level deeper, the psychological implications
and violence of the Medusa myth tells us about ourselves. Medusa
is a literary
figure, subject to a multitude of readings, including readings that push
the boundaries of technology.
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