Perseus Triumphant

Domenico Marchetti

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the most heroic acts of Perseus, son of Jupiter and the mortal princess Danae, was the beheading of the snake-haired Medusa. In a witty play on the power of the Gorgon's severed head to turn men to stone, Canova's hero looks directly at it and has indeed become marble. The sculptor created his first version of the Perseus, shown here, on his own initiative and in secrecy. In 1801 it was revealed to such acclaim that Pope Pius VII (r. 1800-1823) installed it in the niche formerly occupied by the revered Apollo Belvedere, which had been carried off to France by Napoleon. A visiting Polish countess requested a replica, which Canova completed in 1806. That second version, more fluent and lyrical in its treatment, is now in the Metropolitan Museum (67.110.1).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art