Baroque realism personified: Caravaggio’s Medusa

🛡️Caravaggio painted Medusa on a real wooden shield covered with canvas. This might be due to two possible reasons: one, to rival the original Medusa painting by Leonardo da Vinci (which unfortunately has never been retrieved). Two, to symbolise how Perseus slayed Medusa by using a shield to see her reflection, allowing him to sidestep her destructive gaze.

👑The work was commissioned as a gift for Grand Duke Ferdinando I de’ Medici, who loved collecting unusual and striking artworks.

🧑‍🎨Caravaggio’s Medusa was, in many ways, a self-portrait. He put on an exaggerated expression of terror on his own face, and used a mirror to translate what he saw of his reflection on to Medusa.

In 1597, Caravaggio was commissioned to paint a shield for Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, who intended to present it to the Medici family. Rather than a traditional decorative piece, Caravaggio created something bold and unsettling.

Using oil paint on a convex wooden shield, Caravaggio crafted Medusa’s head at the very moment of her beheading. Instead of showing her as a mythological monster, he made her horrifyingly human. Her wide eyes and open mouth capturing the exact instant of shock and death.

The image symbolized Perseus’s victory over the Gorgon, but in Florence, it also represented the Medici family’s triumph over chaos and enemies. At the time, viewers were stunned by its realism and intensity, praising Caravaggio’s ability to blur the line between myth and reality.

Now displayed in the Uffizi Gallery, Medusa continues to draw visitors with its raw power. Its unique blend of myth, innovation, and psychological drama makes it one of Caravaggio’s most iconic works, and a highlight of any visit to Florence.