Description
Medusa Murtola, created around 1597, is regarded as the first of the two known versions of the Head of Medusa painted by Caravaggio. On the convex surface of a small shield, the artist depicts the instant immediately following the Gorgon's decapitation by Perseus. The severed head seems to emerge from darkness as blood pours from the neck and snakes writhe around the face.
The expression captures a moment of extreme tension. The eyes are wide open, the mouth seems to release a scream, and the face combines pain, terror and astonishment. Caravaggio does not present Medusa as a distant mythological monster but as a being apparently becoming aware of her own death at the very instant it occurs. The shield's curved surface makes the severed head seem to enter the viewer's space.
