Perseus with the Head of Medusa

Antonio Canova · 1804–1806

Canova frames Perseus's victory as a poised Neoclassical answer to the fearsome Gorgon gaze.

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Source details without the wait

Title: Perseus with the Head of Medusa
Creator: Antonio Canova
Date: 1804–1806
Holding source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Medium: Sculpture
Mythic links: Perseus, Medusa, Athena

Why it belongs

A cultural afterlife of the myth

Canova frames Perseus's victory as a poised Neoclassical answer to the fearsome Gorgon gaze. MythBranch includes this work as evidence of later reception: it shows how a mythic figure or episode was selected, reshaped and transmitted for a new audience.

Perseus profile Medusa profile Athena profile

Image attribution

Locally hosted, openly licensed

Photograph by Ad Meskens · sculpture by Antonio Canova

License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Image record on Wikimedia Commons