A marble statue titled "Perseus with the Head of Medusa," by Antonio Canova, 1804 to 1806, a replica of Canova's marble in the Vatican, commissioned by Count Jan and Countess Valeria Tarnowski of Dzikow, Poland. The statue shows Perseus holding the severed head of the Gorgon Medusa. Held today by the Metropolitan Museum of Art under accession 67.110.1, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts department, Fletcher Fund, 1967.
Facts
Rights and Reproduction
Reproduction and CopyrightCanova's prime marble version was installed in the Vatican's Braccio Nuovo in 1801 to 1802, deliberately placed in the space cleared by ancient statues Napoleon's forces had carried off to Paris, positioning the modern work as a rival to antiquity itself; strong demand for the composition led Canova's workshop to produce further versions, including the one commissioned by the Tarnowski family now at the Metropolitan Museum, so this statue is one of several period replicas rather than a later imitation. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Poland directly: "Countess Valeria Tarnowski of Dzikow, Poland."
Belongs to Tradition
Depicts
The Met's own title for this marble statue names the subject outright, "Perseus with the Head of Medusa," and the museum's own Getty AAT-linked tags confirm both Perseus and Medusa, a narrative identification rather than a bare tag.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.