Medusa with the Head of Perseus
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Medusa with the Head of Perseus is a sculpture created by Luciano Garbati in 2008. The statue depicts Medusa holding a sword and the head of Perseus, a role reversal of Greek legend. A bronze cast version was displayed in Collect Pond Park, Lower Manhattan from October 2020 to April 2021.[1]
Although it was not created as a feminist work, it was later adopted as a symbol by some in the Me Too movement.[2]
The sculpture depicts a nude Medusa holding the head of Perseus in her right hand and a sword in her left.[2] The original Medusa was sculpted in clay, then cast in resin with fibreglass reinforcements.[3] The sculpture stands just over 2 metres tall.[4][3]
Garbati grew up in a small town near Florence, where Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus with the Head of Medusa is prominently displayed in the Loggia Lanzi of the Piazza della Signoria; he admired Cellini's work, and wanted to reverse the roles of the narrative. In an interview with Quartz, he drew the distinction between Cellini's Perseus and his Medusa; in the former Perseus is triumphant, while in the latter Medusa is determined, and had acted in self defense.[3] He would later state that he was unaware of Medusa's status as a feminist icon at the time.[5]