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by Guy Shaked
Keywords: Benvenuto Cellini, Ganymede, Homoerotic, Medusa, Perseus, Logia del Lanzi, Shaked
In his Bronze "Persueus and Medusa", Benvenuto Cellini depicts the scene from Greek Mythology as described in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The eighteen feet Perseus is standing as if at an end of a walk, in his right hand is his swords and in his left hand held up high is the severed head of Medusa. On his feet is his symbol – the small winged sandals, given to him by Hermes (the wings are also duplicated on his head).
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid tells us the story of the slaying of Medusa. King Polydectes of Seriphus became in love with Danae (the mother of Perseus) but was bothered by the presence of her son. Therefore, He sent Perseus to kill and bring the head of the Gorgon Medusa, expecting that Perseus would thus be killed [1]
It is said that the sculpture symbolizes the patron who ordered it from Cellini - Cosimo I. The statue bears much resemblance to its biblical ancestor – the statue of David with the head of Goliath (and especially to the bronze statue by Donatello). Both depict a young beautiful male hero – after the event (battle) that is to transform his life and pave his way to become a future king (David – king of Israel, Perseus – king of Mycenae) of a people. Both depict the severed head of the un-human rival of the hero (Goliath being a giant and Medusa a monster). In both the hero is holding a sword in his hand – the weapon with which he severed his enemy’s head.
Yet the statue of Perseus and Medusa by Cellini has also significant difference from the former David subject – Medusa is a female (while Goliath was a male). Thus the battle of Perseus is between male and female: between beauty and ugliness. And Medusa is no regular female – she is a female who kills other males mainly. So that Perseus killing Medusa is saving others males from this female.
This theme of male beauty killing female ugliness fits well with Cellini's occupation at that time with Homoerotic statues. These are from that time the Ganymede, Apollo and Hyacinthus and Narcissus [2]. All these statues bare in common a celebration of the male body and beauty. The other homoerotic statues (besides Perseus) from this time do not even show any woman. It has been demonstrated by Saslow that especially the Ganymede statue Cellini created had homoerotic meaning [3]. Cellini the sculptor, was probably not unfamiliar with the homoerotic world as he was twice charged with sodomy and twice more accused of it [4].
Hyacinth, Narcissus and Ganymede, can be considered as statues that were made with no comission, and therefore the idea of the expression of the homo-eroticism. It could be that in these statues Cellini actually expressed his own private desires, doing it with the excuse of serving the Duke. It was also quiet clear that the Duke understood this, but till a certain point avoided interfeering Cellini's motives, and prefered to close his eyes about the second meaning of these statues.
Still, when we are talking about the Perseus, the situation is a bit different and a bit more complicated in that sense. This statue was actually officially comissioned by Cosimo I, and it was supposed to be presented right from the beginning at the Piazza. Also, the statue had political meaning for the Duke and were trying to pass a message to the public. Therefore, while we are talking here about something with the meaning of Homo-eroticism, or misogyny of the artist, the situation is more complicated.
This might be the reason why the statue's homoerotic level is much more hidden than in other Cellini's homoerotic statues and might explain the diffrence between them (In Perseus and Medusa there is also a female figure and not just males) [5].
As a structural element that unifies the statue stylistically are the twirling lines (hair (or snakes) and arteries). These unite Perseus hair with Medusa “snakes-hair” and with her main artery descending at the middle of her neck and on the neck of her slain body beneath. This is a deviation from the severed head on the ground (Goliath’s in the David) which the fact that Medusa’s head is held up high allows for. This artery is most important as it has the shape of a snake and it serves to show that Medusa (the female) was not only snake like outside (at the hair) but also inwardly.
In equating thus the female with a snake, Cellini continues the biblical story of Adam and Eve and the snake – yet turning this time the cooperation between female and snake symbolized into one being – the woman-snake. In this he follows the tradition of the biblical story where a female (Eve) (here also snake symbolizing Satan) temps the male (Adam) and causes a catastrophe for humanity – the fall from Eden.
Holding Medusa’s severed head up high serves a dual purpose in this statue. First, it shows that here unlike in the mythological story, from Medusa’s head emanates a snake likeness (according to Cellini) and not Pegasus and Chrysaor as one of the legends (another legends says they were born from drops of blood from her head that fell to the sea). So it demonstrates that Cellini here intentionally created the snake like feature which deviates from the original mythological story.
Second, by not having Medusa’s head placed on the ground (like Goliath’s head) but rather up high by Perseus , Cellini is refereeing to another part of the myth of Perseus. When Perseus was using Medusa’s head to gaze upon Atlas and Phineus (separately) to turn them into stone. So that Medusa’s head is to be interpreted on another layer of meaning – a current one to Cellini’s time. For the bronze statue was meant to be placed among other sculptures in the Loggia dei Lanzi – many of them of stone. So that it could be said that Cellini’s Medusa’s freezing gaze made all these figures turn to stone (i.e. become stone and marble statues).
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[1] Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. F. J. Miller (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1944), Book 1
[2] James M. Saslow, Ganymede in the Renaissance,(New Haven, Yale University Press, 1988), Chapter 4 Benvenuto Cellini: The Libertine and the Counter Reformation, (and specifically) p.145, 152
[3] Saslow, Ganymede, pp. 145-151
[4] Saslow, Ganymede, p. 150
[5] Lior Aviv, Il crocifisso di Benvenuto Cellini e le altre sue opere prive di committenza(Tesina), (In Italian), Universitŕ degli studi di Firenze, 2006
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