PerseusAndromeda1.0214

PerseusAndromeda1.0214

Tate Britain site
Ovid Met. 4.614-20, 770-803
Apollod. Libr. 2.4.2-3

Henry C. Fehr, 1867-1940, "The Rescue of Andromeda," 1893, Tate Britain no. 1749, on display at Millbank Building's East Porch

Fehr's conception of the moment depends largely upon Cellini's depiction of Medusa's execution (PerseusMedusa1.0009_Cellini), but here the crumpled body at the sculpture's base is Andromeda, who is to be rescued. The decapitated head of the Gorgon is used in the same method as Cellini's hero threatens, and Fehr's sea-monster suffers for the intervention. This conception of the Gorgon, though, involves a face that is considerably more benign than Cellini or most of his successors imagined.

Bronze statue of Perseus with the head of Medusa, standing on a defeated monster, set against a stone building

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.