Perseus and Andromeda

Date: 60 - 70 AD[1

Dimensions: 1.06m high 93 cm wide

Technique: Fresco

Style: Fourth Style wall in the House of the Discouri, Pompeii

Perseus and AndromedaPerseus (with winged feet and a sickle sword) had just killed Medusa - the gorgon-head hangs from the scabbard. On his way back to Greece, he saw a young woman chained to a rock: Andromeda, the daughter of King Kephus of Ethiopia. Andromeda’s mother, Kassiopeia, boasted that Andromeda was more beautiful than the sea-goddesses. This annoyed Poseidon, so he sent a monster to terrorize Kephus’ city. To rid the city of this terrible monster, Kephus had to sacrifice his daughter. Andromeda was chained to a cliff to await her fate. Perseus killed the monster, either with a sword of by using Medusa’s head and took Andromeda for his bride.

Perseus and Andromeda

Perseus

Andromeda

Sea monster

Head of Medusa

Winged booties

Perseus and Andromeda

CompositionTriangular – gives structure and focus to the narrative.

PoseTheatrical – 4th style a view not on an architectural world, but a mythological one.

Perseus and Andromeda

Drapery

Catenary folds

Zig-zag folds

Irregularity – naturalism

Layering – volume

Highlighting – depth and body beneath

Perseus and Andromeda

Treatment of subject matter

Romantic or heroic?

Evidence for each

Perseus and Andromeda

Anatomy

Almost sculptural

Idealise

Bulging calf muscles and biceps

Knee not prefect

Raised wrist at unusual, but possible angle

Depth created byAtmospheric perspective – e.g. hazier tones at the top

Overlapping – e.g. hand on arm

Shadows – e.g. on the rocks beneath Andromeda

Highlighting – e.g. knee of Andromeda

Shading – e.g. boots of Perseus; side of monster’s face

¾ pose – e.g. Perseus

Foreshortening – e.g.Andromeda’s upper arm

Perseus and Andromeda

Perseus and AndromedaGreek

influenceA copy of a Greek painting from the mid 4th century, painted by Nicias. There is great similarity in

them in terms of triangularity of composition.

pose of Perseus

sculptural treatment of the musculature of Perseus

drapery of Andromeda are such features.

Other copies…

Perseus and Andromeda, 1st cent. A.D., Pompeian wall painting, House of Apollo, 4th style (Naples: Nat'l. Mus.)

Perseus and Andromeda

Mosaic from North Africa – 3rd century AD

Perseus and Andromeda

Perseus and AndromedaGreek

influence

contrast of dark flesh for male figure and pale for female is also a Greek iconographical convention.

The close likeness to the anatomy and drapery to sculptured forms is a heavy Greek influence - Roman paintings of human forms tended to be more naturalistic.

Perseus and AndromedaGreek

influence

The painting focus almost entirely on the human participants in the foreground; little attention is paid to the faint and negligible background.

This is rather more typical of the Greek view of the world - that the universe is man-centred; rather than the Roman view which was interested in landscape.