The over-lifesize ''Medusa Rondanini'', the best late

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

or Augustan Roman marble copy of the head of

Medusa In Greek mythology, Medusa (; ), also called Gorgo () or the Gorgon, was one of the three Gorgons. Medusa is generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair; her appearance was so hideous that anyone who looked upon her wa ...

, is rendered more humanized and beautiful than the always grotesque apotropaic head of Medusa that appeared as the '' Gorgoneion'' on the

aegis The aegis ( ; ''aigís''), as stated in the ''Iliad'', is a device carried by Athena and Zeus, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a shield and sometimes featuring the head of a Gorgon. There may be a connection with a deity named Aex, a ...

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

. The ''Medusa Rondanini'' is located in the

Glyptothek The Glyptothek () is a museum in Munich, Germany, which was commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Ludwig I to house his collection of Ancient Greek art, Greek and Roman art, Roman sculptures (hence γλυπτο- ''glypto-'' "sculp ...

Munich, Germany Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, having been purchased by the art-loving king Ludwig of Bavaria from the heirs of the marchese Rondanini, during his Grand Tour of Italy as a prince.

History

The Medusa Rondanini was formerly exhibited in Palazzo Rondanini in the upper end of

via del Corso The Via del Corso is a main street in the historical centre of Rome. It is straight in an area otherwise characterized by narrow meandering alleys and small piazzas. Considered a wide street in ancient times, the Corso is approximately 10 metres w ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, where it was overlooked by the great art historian

Johann Joachim Winckelmann Johann Joachim Winckelmann ( ; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenism (neoclassicism), Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Ancient Greek art, Greek, Helleni ...

, perhaps distracted by

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

Rondanini Pietà The ''Rondanini Pietà'' is a marble sculpture that Michelangelo worked on from 1552 until the last days of his life, in 1564. Several sources indicate that there were actually three versions, with this one being the last. The name Rondanini refer ...

in the same collection. It was much admired, nevertheless, by

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

, who was struck by its "unspeakable anguished stare of death" and said of it, when first bringing it to the attention of art historians in 1786, that "the mere knowledge that such a work could be created and still exists in the world makes me twice the person I was." When

Antonio Canova Antonio Canova (; 1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italians, Italian Neoclassical sculpture, Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists,. his sculpture was ins ...

made a marble ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'' (1798-1801), to take the place of the

Apollo Belvedere The ''Apollo Belvedere'' (also called the ''Belvedere Apollo'', ''Apollo of the Belvedere'', or ''Pythian Apollo'') is a celebrated marble sculpture from classical antiquity. The work has been dated to mid-way through the 2nd century A.D. and is ...

sent to Napoleonic Paris, it was the ''Medusa Rondanini'' that served as the model for the gorgon's head in Perseus' outstretched hand. The ''Medusa Rondanini'' may be a Roman copy of a classical work of the fifth century BC, a model attributed to one or another Athenian sculptor of the age of

Phidias Phidias or Pheidias (; , ''Pheidias''; ) was an Ancient Greek sculptor, painter, and architect, active in the 5th century BC. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the statues of ...

. Alternatively, it may have been modeled after a classicising

work of the late fourth century BC. If it is of the fifth century, Janer Danforth Belson has pointed out, it is the first of the "beautiful gorgoneion" type to appear in Greek art by more than a century, and unparalleled in any contemporaneous representation of the Medusa head. Martin Robertson, following Furtwängler's attribution to Phidias, remarked that it would be unlikely for the beautiful face of the Medusa to be juxtaposed with the beautiful face of the goddess, whose gorgoneion retained its fearful archaic appearance. Janer Danforth Belson has made a case for its model to have been the gorgoneion on a gilt-bronze aegis that was an ''

ex-voto An ex-voto is a votive offering to a saint or a divinity, given in fulfillment of a vow (hence the Latin term, short for ''ex voto suscepto'', "from the vow made") or in gratitude or devotion. The term is usually restricted to Christian example ...

'' of Antiochus IV and was hung on the south retaining wall of the

Acropolis of Athens The Acropolis of Athens (; ) is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens, Greece, and contains the remains of several Ancient Greek architecture, ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, ...

about 170 BC, where it was noted by Pausanias in the late second century AD. Six other ancient replicas of the same prototype, apparently a bronze, have been recorded, none of them of this quality.E. Buschor 1958:11.

Notes

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External links

3D model of the Medusa Rondanini via laser scan of a cast at Skulpturhalle Basel museum
Hellenistic-style Roman sculptures Cultural depictions of Medusa Antiochus IV Epiphanes