PERSEUS FREEING ANDROMEDA
Curving in high relief in maple wood, treated and dyed.
95 x 65 x 9 cm.

Perseus riding Pegasus, coming back to his land after one of his many great deeds  ; he finds a beautiful woman, Andromeda, chained to a rock and guarded by a terrible dragon; he falls in love with her and promises her parents to save her immediately if they allow him to marry her. Given their consent , he releases her from the bonds that kept her tied to a rock, moment represented in the picture, killing at the same time the dragon , who was guarding her under the orders of Poseidon , the powerful God of the seas. The composition of this relief is almost literally copy, introducing some changes from a painting of J.P Blanc, kept in the Lille Museum. The theme has been often represented along the History of Art, Titian, Rubens, Pujet and Thorwaldsen are some examples.

 

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