Medusa and Her Many Forms at The Met

Type “Medusa” into the search function of The Met’s publicly accessible online collection, and you’ll be met with diverse depictions of the fabled femme. She appears intimidating on an Etruscan antefix, a kind of ornamental roof tile, dating to the 6th century BCE; elegant on a carnelian intaglio crafted in Hellenistic-period Greece; serene on a gilded French mask (late 18th–early 19th century); and defeated in a monumental sculpture (1804–6) by Antonio Canova (Italian, 1757–1822).

Canova’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa (1804–6), a highlight of The Met’s European Sculpture and Decorative Arts collection, informs our stylish unisex tee. This tagless, 100% cotton tee hones in on Medusa’s severed head, held by Perseus, the Greek hero renowned for successfully slaying the forbidding creature.

Greek legend has it that Medusa was one of the three grotesque Gorgon sisters, feared far and wide for her hair made of snakes and her deathly gaze that turned anyone she looked at to stone—until her fateful encounter with Perseus, when she met her own macabre end.

The best-known myth surrounding the event describes the request of a seemingly impossible task: Perseus was to kill Medusa and return with her disembodied head. Aided by the gods, who provided him with divine tools such as a cap of invisibility and an indestructible sword called a harpe, Perseus caught the Gorgons off guard by attacking while they slept. Using a polished shield provided to him by the war goddess Athena, he tracked Medusa’s reflection to avoid her petrifying gaze, and beheaded her.

Canova’s sculpture, which welcomes visitors to The Met’s Carroll and Milton Petrie European Sculpture Court, is a celebration of Perseus’s triumph. Notably absent is the drama and adrenaline of Medusa’s death in its immediate aftermath; rather, Canova has perhaps immortalized the moment when Perseus presents the head to Athena, who displays it on her shield like a protective talisman—an image of evil to repel evil.

Canova's composition evokes the Apollo Belvedere, believed to be a 2nd-century copy of a Greek bronze by the sculptor Leochares, reflecting the artist's deep admiration of—and capacity to rival—the art of antiquity. 

Perseus’s stance directs our gaze down his left arm to Medusa’s severed head, which itself is based on another ancient treasure known as the Rondanini Medusa. The finished sculpture was purchased by Pope Pius VII, who placed it in the niche where the Apollo Belvedere—which was looted from the Vatican by Napoleon’s troops in 1797—formerly stood. The Museum’s sculpture is a marble replica made for Countess Valeria Tarnowska. 

A surviving letter reveals Canova’s concern that the marble head he made for the countess’s sculpture was too heavy for Perseus’s outstretched arm, so he shipped her a lighter alternative made of plaster as well. The marble version, then, could be repurposed as a table ornament—its hollow middle allowed for the placement of a candle, so that the countess could marvel at the eerie glow emanating from Medusa’s head.

There’s sorrow in Canova’s depiction of the vanquished Medusa, whose appearance varies drastically through time. A closer look at her role in Greek mythology and art reveals a character with nuance and complexity, hence her many forms—from grimacing monstrosity to composed beauty.

In Archaic-period Greece, Medusa was depicted as a fearsome creature with bulging eyes and gnashing teeth. Later on, in the Classical and Hellenistic periods, she transforms into a decidedly human woman with the emergence of a new artistic emphasis on the ideal form. Despite her role as a monster, Medusa’s appearance softens in step with the trend.

The image of a snake-haired Medusa wasn’t pervasive until the 1st century BCE. The Roman author Ovid provides a more empathetic perspective on her origin story by describing Medusa as a beautiful maiden seduced by Poseidon, the god of the sea, in a temple of Athena. In a fit of rage, Athena punished Medusa by turning her hair into a terrifying tangle of serpents. 

The Met collection offers a glimpse at Medusa’s shape shifting throughout the centuries. Yet the one consistency across cultures, eras, and art forms is her unflinching, forward-facing stare, radiating a disquieting otherness at the viewer. Her cryptic features—be it wild hair and a piercing gaze or wings and fangs—evoke a visceral sense of danger. 

Perseus is celebrated for his role in extinguishing this threatening force, but Medusa’s alluring presence lives on through art.

Shop the Canova Head of Medusa Unisex Tee, along with our other apparel reimagining artworks from The Met collection, in-store and online.