Medusa
Jean Delville
1893
- Medium
- Colored pencils and wax crayons, with pen and blue ink, brush and gold paint and blue gouache, over graphite, on yellow wove paper, laid down on white card (a modern mount)
- Dimensions
- 23.8 × 44.5 cm (9 3/8 × 17 9/16 in.)
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
drawings (visual works)prints and drawingpaper (fiber product)
About
A prolific writer, poet, and artist, Jean Delville was a leading figure of the Idealist branch of Belgian Symbolism, intent on painting visionary ideas instead of images inspired by the real world. Here, he depicted Medusa, a figure from Greek mythology often described as having venomous snakes for hair. According to myth, those who gazed into Medusa’s eyes turned to stone. In Delville’s drawing, Medusa’s hypnotic eyes stare out from a web of sinuous liquids, serpents, smoke, and a blue veil that partially obscures her face.