Perseus Freeing Andromeda
Perseus Freeing Andromeda or Liberation of Andromeda is a painting created by Piero di Cosimo, during the Italian Renaissance. The painting was praised by critics and art historians for its aesthetic, cosmological and political implications. The painting is a recreation of the myth of Perseus, the demi-god, who slays the sea monster and saves the beautiful Andromeda. The painting is based on a story created by the ancient Roman writer Ovid, in the Metamorphoses. The themes of the painting include platonic love, ideal beauty, marriage, and natural beauty. The painting includes portraits of the Medici family and many of Florentine's elite upper ruling class as characters in the story of Perseus Freeing Andromeda. The painting also represents a paragone between painting and sculpture. The painting resides in the Uffizi in Florence.
Iconography Andromeda is seen as the ideal sculptural beauty. She is sometimes rendered as statue-like in paintings representing this myth. The painting of Andromeda on the side of the mountain about to be consumed by the sea monster, represents ideal beauty. Andromeda seems so still and beautiful that she appeared to be a sculpture, until her hair moves from the wind. Then Perseus realizes she is actually a real person. The symbolism of Perseus freeing Andromeda is also a representation of platonic love in contrast to Phineus who is turned to stone because of his lust for Andromeda. Medusa additionally represents voluptuousness and temptations.
Historical context The painting has been praised by art historians and art critics because it possesses aesthetics, cosmological and political implications. It also accurately depicts the classical stories by focusing on the theme of beauty. In terms of political characteristics, the painting contains many contemporary dignitaries such as Filippo Strozzi the Younger and Lorenzo de' Medici, future Duke of Urbino. Strozzi is depicted as the man with a white turban on the right hand corner of the painting. He is supposed to be Ceppheus. Lorenzo de' Medici's portrait is supposed to be Perseus. Piero di Cosimo signs the painting by putting himself in it as the elderly man facing the viewer. The depiction of the sea monster, in the painting, is an allusion to the return of the Medici household to power in Florence. Giorgio Vasari praised the painting for its beautiful use of color and for the depiction of an original sea monster in a way that no one in the past has done.