The Slaying of the Medusa

Luca Giordano is one of the most important late-17th-century Neapolitan painters. Under the rule of Spain at the time, Naples was the home of many Spanish artists whose bold and dramatic styles influenced his work. Giordano traveled to Rome, Florence, and Venice in his twenties, where his rapid method of painting earned him the nickname, “Luca fa presto,” or “Luke paints quickly.” In 1692 Charles II summoned him to Spain, and Giordano worked there as court painter for ten years. The Slaying of the Medusa was probably painted while he was living in Spain.

Giordano was influenced by the illusionistic ceiling paintings of artists such as Pietro da Cortona, which he would have seen while living in Rome. The Slaying of the Medusa, and its pendant, The Massacre of the Children of Niobe, also in the Brooks Collection, were painted with the image di sotto in su, or seen from the bottom upward. Both paintings were probably originally incorporated in an elaborate decorative scheme within a private residence.

The Slaying of the Medusa is a typically exuberant Neapolitan Baroque painting with flowing drapery, frozen action, and strong colors. Medusa, her head covered with writhing snakes, is lying on a rock next to the two bodies of her monstrous sisters, the immortal Gorgons. Strange feathery wings grow out of the muscular shoulders of the Gorgon on the lower left and her heavy, paw-like hand lies limply in front of her. Perseus, in the center of the canvas and wearing a flowing white velvet cloak, hefts his sword over his head. In characteristically Baroque fashion, Giordano has captured a tense moment just before Perseus, intently watching his reflection in Athena’s shield, lowers the blade and decapitates the recumbent Medusa.