The Caravaggio’S Medusa

Caravaggio’S Medusa
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Caravaggio’S Medusa
Medusa is a snake –haired monster in Greek mythology known as Gorgons. She was the only Gorgon who was mortal and hence she only met her death after her slayer, Perseus, chopped off her head. The blood that spurted out from her neck gave rise to Chrysaor and Pegasus, her only sons by Poseidon. Different artists of the ancient times, such as Homer, Hesiod, the eighth-century B.C. poet, Pinder, the fifth-century B.C. lyric poet, and Caravaggio, have provided different depictions of her image, resulting into different interpretations of her appearance and ability. The painting has been done on oil on canvas, which is stretched over shield of poplar wood. Various artists have presented different versions of the painting. Each one of them creating different perspectives of Medusa, which raises several questions about the actual identity of Medusa. Consequently, it is worth noting that artists have the power to vary images based on their interests and life experiences.
Caravaggio provides an interesting perspective when he decides to depict a self-portrait of his own face in place of Medusa’s. He presents different perspectives about Medusa in different years. In 1631, he paints Medusa’s head covered in snakes and in another inventory, he presents the head of Medusa on a green field (Spike, 2010). These representations ushered him in to the popular imagination as an archetypal bohemian artist who was a radical non-conformist. Many of his contemporaries perceived him as an artist without any theory and who replicated what he saw without considering the great tradition of the high Renaissance. For example, Giovanni Pietro Bellori, one of his major critics, noted that he “lacked invention, decorum, disegno, or any knowledge of the science of painting” (Gregory, 2011, p. 167). His works seem to have been greatly influenced by Vasari’s ideas.
Cavaraggio’s painting is in accordance with Vasari’s perception of how different authors depicted their painting based on the time period of their existence. For example, artists of the First Age, such as Cimabue and Giotto, presented their arts through direct observation and imitation of the natural world. This perspective was common among artists who existed during this period. Vasari posits that the origin of these arts was nature herself. The Second Age artists, such as Masccio and Donatello, only strived to imitate whatever they saw in nature and nothing more. Consequently, their works was better planned and better conceived, which encouraged them to assign rules to their perspective (Gregory, 2011). Unfortunately, artists of this period relied excessively on study and measurement and hence their works lacked spontaneity and gracefulness. Third Age artists, starting with Leonardo and ending with Michelangelo, gained from perceiving the examples of the antique sculpture and advanced more by utilizing visual judgment that overrode rules. They imitated the most beautiful things in nature and combined various beautiful parts of the human bodies into an idealized figure.
Cavaraggio is a Third Age artist who maste...