There are two Medusa and Perseus sculptures involved in this story. The one was created in 1554 by Benvenuto Cellini and would serve as the inspiration for Luciano Garbati’s reactionary version which offers a fresh perspective of an ancient story and brings to light the manner in which society often blames the victims instead of the perpetrators.
After being sexually assaulted by Poseidon, Medusa was cursed and banished by Athena. Perseus arrived on her island one day, outwitted Medusa, and beheaded her.
Cellini is regarded as the finest Renaissance craftsman; indeed, the incomparable Michelangelo characterized him as the finest goldsmith of which we have ever known.
Garbati joined the National School of Arts and qualified in 1996 as a Sculpture professor. His interests have been the physically and psychologically oriented changes, alterations, and modifications that occur in the body’s variation towards otherness.
Medusa With the Head of Perseus (2008) is a re-imagined tale by Luciano Garbati that went viral throughout social media, as the appropriate embodiment for a phase of feminine anger.
For many people, this artwork represents a change in the way we view old stories without questioning them.For many people, this artwork represents a shift from an environment where a woman is blamed for her rape, to one wherein she claims justice and victory over the men who try to hurt her.