![]() He had only meant to do Cellini's statue backwards. This was because Garbati had not meant to make the statue about rape survivors. Other people asked why Medusa was holding the head of Perseus and not of the god who raped her, Poseidon. He answered that artists have been showing Medusa as beautiful since the 400s b.c.e. Other people asked Garbati why he made Medusa naked and beautiful when she is ugly in the myth. He also said he'd learned more about patriarchy. Garbati answered that he liked that people liked his statue. Some people said that black women started the #MeToo Movement, so it was not good to have a statue made by a male artist as its symbol. They said Medusa was a woman who had been raped who fought back. It’s quite a tragic moment." As survivor icon ĭuring the #MeToo Movement, thousands of women wrote to Garbati saying what the statue meant to them. The representations of Perseus, he's always showing the fact that he won, showing the head…if you look at my Medusas…she is determined, she had to do what she did because she was defending herself. This difference between a masculine victory and a feminine one, that was central to my work. "I was thinking of Perseus, this man with all his gadgets, going there and having this victory. ![]() Garbati said this was because Perseus coming to attack Medusa meant different things to Perseus and Medusa: Garbati shows Medusa holding Perseus' head low and staring straight ahead. Cellini shows Perseus holding Medusa's head high and smiling. Garbati decided not to copy Cellini's statue exactly. Garbati offered to sell the original resin sculpture for US$35,000 and bronze copies for US$60,000, depending on who made the bronze copy. She looks like a woman and not a monster. She holds a man's head by the hair in her right hand. It shows a naked Medusa with a sword in her left hand. The sculpture is almost 7 feet tall (about 2 meters). Then, he could use the resin sculpture to make copies out of bronze. He used the clay model to make another sculpture out of resin and fiberglass. ![]() Garbati was copying Cellini's statue of Perseus. He only wanted to show the sculpture the opposite way. He only want to "flip the script" of the story of Perseus and Medusa. Garbati did not think he was making feminist art. Garbati wanted to make that statue in reverse. In that sculpture, a nearly naked Perseus holds up Medusa's head. In the 1500s, Benvenuto Cellini made a sculpture called Perseus with the Head of Medusa. Only then does Medusa go to the island where Perseus will later kill her. Athena punishes Medusa by turning her into an ugly monster: Her hair turns into snakes. To the people telling the myth, Medusa, not Poseidon, was the one who had done something bad. She is raped by the god Poseidon in Athena's temple. She works for the goddess Athena in her temple. Zeus puts Medusa's head on his shield so it will frighten his enemies.Īt some point in history, no later than the Roman poet Ovid, another part was added to the myth: Medusa starts as a human priestess and not a monster. Perseus then gives Medusa's dead head to the gods. He later uses the head to turn his enemies to stone. He cuts off her head and puts it in a bag. The hero Perseus comes to the island to kill Medusa. In the story, Perseus kills Medusa, not the other way around: Medusa is a monster with a face so terrible that anyone who sees her turns to stone. That happened several years after the statue was made. The media called the statue an "icon of justice" for people who survived sexual assault. It is famous because people in the Me Too movement talked about it. ![]() Argentine artist Luciano Garbati made it in 2008. Medusa with the Head of Perseus is a sculpture.
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