Medusa with the Head of Perseus
A role-reversal statue of Medusa holding Perseus's head.
Medusa with the Head of Perseus is a 2008 sculpture by Luciano Garbati. It reverses the roles of the classical myth, showing Medusa holding the head of Perseus. A bronze version was displayed in Lower Manhattan from October 2020 to April 2021 and was later adopted as a symbol by some in the Me Too movement, though not originally created as a feminist work.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Luciano Garbati
- Year
- 2008
- Material
- Resin with fibreglass reinforcements (original); bronze (later cast)
- Height
- Just over 2 metres
- Location (bronze cast)
- Collect Pond Park, Lower Manhattan
- Display period (bronze cast)
- October 2020 to April 2021
Facts from the source article.
Creation and description
The nude Medusa stands over two meters tall, gripping Perseus’s head in her right hand and a sword in her left. Originally sculpted in clay, the final piece was cast in resin with fiberglass. Garbati, who grew up near Florence and admired Cellini’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa, wanted to flip the story. He saw Cellini’s Perseus as triumphant, while his Medusa was determined and acting in self-defense. He later said he didn’t know she was a feminist icon at the time.
In New York City
A photograph of the sculpture captioned "Be thankful we only want equality and not payback" went viral in 2018. New York photographer Bek Andersen saw it and contacted an anonymous patron. The work was the centerpiece of the pop-up exhibition Medusa With The Head in the Bowery from November 2018 to January 2019. A bronze replica was later installed in Collect Pond Park, facing the New York County Criminal Court building, where the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault trial took place.
More in Cultural Depictions of Medusa
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