Type: Limited edition prints
Size: 48cm x 33cm
Tirage: 50 copies
A pencil drawing of Perseus with the Head of Medusa after the bronze sculpture made by Benvenuto Cellini in the period 1545–1554 in the Loggia dei Lanzi in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy.
Perseus (Greek: Περσεύς) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was a Greek hero and a slayer of monsters before the days of the Trojan war and Heracles. He beheaded the Gorgon Medusa for Polydectes and saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus.
Medusa (Greek: Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress") also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those who gazed into her eyes would turn to stone.
After Perseus beheaded her, he then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity, the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion.
