Medusa with the Head of Perseus: The 7-Foot Bronze Sculpture comes to Lower Manhattan
Located in Collect Pond Park, Centre Street, in Lower Manhattan, the sculpture is the work of Argentine-Italian artist Luciano Garbati. It is cast in Bronze by Vanessa Solomon of Carbon Sculpt Studios in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York and Laran Bronze Foundry in Philadelphia.
This is yet another amazing work come to life in partnership with the NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks Program. It will be on view from October 13, 2020 - April 30, 2021.
I have always been a huge fan of Greek Mythology ever since I could read, and Medusa always intrigued me. For those who do not remember the details of Medusa’s story, she is commonly known as having hair made of snakes and an ability to turn anyone she looked at to stone. Her battle against Perseus does not end well for Medusa in the myth, Perseus slays her and presents her head, snakes and all, to the goddess Athena. But Garbati’s sculpture portrays a very different ending.
Garbati’s sculpture embodies Medusa in the way she has been portrayed for centuries, as far back as the poet Homer: she is not a one-dimensional figure from myth, she is deeply complex. The stories of her are as wide-ranging and diverse as the multiple ways she is portrayed in ancient art. Her appearance is constantly changing through the centuries--but what always remains consistent is her powerful stare, and her body and face always facing front, and that is what I love about her.
Bronze Finial with Head of Medusa, 1st Century A.D.
“This is more than a dream, it’s unimaginable,” Garbati said. “She is alive after the battle with Perseus and that is significant. According to the myth, she should be the one dead and beheaded. That’s the most important thing you can say about this sculpture but also that she has defended her life and set a boundary.”
On Instagram, Garbati wrote, “The place chosen is not accidental, since there they judge cases for crimes related to violence against women. We are already in the final stage working on the last details of this sculpture that became a symbol of justice for many women.”
What is interesting is that Garbati sculpted the work in 2008--but it became a viral sensation during the “Me Too” Movement. As a child Garbato lived in Italy near Florence, where Cellini’s famous Perseus with the Head of Medusa statue sits in the Piazza della Signoria; and it made a deep impression on him. He formed a different question: “What would it look like, her victory, not his? How should that sculpture look?”
The irony of Medusa’s location in New York City is not lost when you realize that she is surrounded by the New York Family, Civil, and Criminal Courts; and across the way looms the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
What I have always loved about art is the dialogue it provokes, and there are certainly differing opinions on this reimagined Medusa. Karen Attiah writes in the Washington Post:
“And Medusa was empowered. She gained the ability to protect herself from ever being raped again, through an ability to use the male gaze against men. This, of course, is not a charitable read on men’s ability to practice self-control: What makes Medusa so dangerous is the notion that men just can’t help themselves but to look. Remember, Athena was born out of Zeus’s skull — she knows intimately how men with power think.”
It is a great point--why portray Medusa defeating Perseus with his choice of weapon, a sword? Why not allow Medusa to use her powerful gaze to score a victory over him? For centuries she did just that.
However you feel about Garbati’s Medusa, isn’t it a beautiful thing to discuss it? If you are able to see the sculpture in person before April 30, 2021, I highly recommend it. Her strength and power is palpable and beautifully unapologetic.
