Reflections of the Gorgon: Mirrors of Gendered Violence, Power, and Identity in the Sculptural Reception of Ovid’s Medusa from Antiquity to Modernity

Abstract

This thesis examines the reception and reinterpretation of Perseus and Medusa told in Ovid's Metamorphoses through three key sculptural works spanning the Renaissance to the 21st century. By analyzing Benvenuto Cellini’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa (1545–1554), Camille Claudel’s Perseus and the Gorgon (late 19th century), and Luciano Garbati’s Medusa with the Head of Perseus (2008), the study traces how classical myth is reimagined in response to evolving historical, political, and gendered discourses. Drawing on feminist theory, classical reception studies, and art historical analysis, the thesis explores how sculpture operates as a medium of mythopoetic transformation, translating Ovid’s themes of gendered violence, divine injustice, and metamorphosis into physical form. It argues that these three statues collectively function as a transhistorical dialogue on power, identity, and artistic agency. The project ultimately situates myth not as a static cultural inheritance, but as a dynamic site of resistance, reflection, and reinterpretation within public and artistic spaces.