Head of Medusa

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Medusa was the Gorgon slain by Perseus, who presented her head crawling with serpents to the all-wise Minerva to wear on her shield. Medusa’s grisly yet mesmerizing countenance is encountered often on cameos, apparently as an advertisement of Minerva’s ability to ward off evil (see also 17.190.869 and 2003.431). This expressive example has been attributed both to the sixteenth century and to the nineteenth, but its robust, propulsive style and peculiar coloring, utilizing the top stratum’s brown to accent a snake and green flecks to create eerie effects against the pale cream body, may have been more thoroughly at home in the age of the Baroque.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art