Dangerous Beauty: Medusa in Classical Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v.75, no. 3 (Winter, 2018)

Karoglou, Kiki (2018)

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Description

Medusa, the monstrous Gorgon of Greek mythology whose gaze turned beholders to stone, became increasingly anthropomorphic and feminine beginning in the fifth century B.C. This Bulletin explores the changing ways in which Medusa and other hybrid creatures were imagined and depicted from antiquity to the present day. Drawn primarily from The Met collection, this publication examines a wide range of works dating from the late sixth century B.C. to the twentieth century, from ancient Greek armor, drinking cups, and funerary urns to Neoclassical cameos and contemporary fashion. Also featured is one of the earliest portrayals in Greek art of Medusa as a beautiful young woman. Among the most powerful and resonant in Western culture, the story of Medusa has inspired poets, artists, psychoanalysts, feminist critics, political theorists, and designers.

Table of contents

President's Note
Daniel H. Weiss

Medusa in Classical Art
Kiki Karoglou

Notes

About the authors

Kiki Karoglou is Associate Curator in the Department of Greek and Roman Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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Exhibition

Dangerous Beauty: Medusa in Classical Art

February 5, 2018–January 6, 2019

Beginning in the fifth century B.C., Medusa—the snaky-haired Gorgon whose gaze turned men to stone—became increasingly anthropomorphic and feminine, undergoing a visual transformation from grotesque to beautiful. A similar shift in representations of other mythical female half-human beings—such as sphinxes, sirens, and the sea monster Scylla—took place at the same time. Featuring 60 artworks, primarily from The Met collection, this exhibition will explore how the beautification of these terrifying figures manifested the idealizing humanism of Classical Greek art, and will trace their enduring appeal in both Roman and later Western art.

The connection between beauty and horror, embodied above all in the figure of Medusa, outlived antiquity, fascinating and inspiring artists through the centuries. Medusa became the archetypical femme fatale, a conflation of femininity, erotic desire, violence, and death. Along with the beautiful Scylla, she foreshadows the conceit of the seductive but threatening female that emerges in the late 19th century in reaction to women's empowerment.

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