Original Creation Date: December 8th, 2006
Charcoal on 90 lb. paper, 16″ × 22″, freehand.
Ref. Model: M. Gandolfi
Original Available For Purchase. Note me for pricing.

Perseus was both the first of the Greek mythic heros as well as the slayer of Medusa. He helped establish the authority of Zeus and the twelve Olympians in mainland Greece.

Somehow I always manage to find mythological roles for the pieces that strike me as surreal or regal or ‘classic’. To me, this is the boy the most talented Greek and Roman marble sculptors would battle for. His features are paramount. His soft, semi-curly hair is reminiscent of that possessed by the ‘beautiful gods’. He looks delicate yet determined, stoic and quietly courageous.

To me, he’s a tenacious youth, blindly valiant as he stalks into Medusa’s lair only to surface with his bloody sword in one hand and a severed head of snakes in the other. And as a result of his valor he acquires a few of his victim’s most desirable traits—a head of wildly unruly hair and beauty enough to turn any onlooker to stone.

Medusa’s death comes at the most inopportune time, for if she could only gaze at her rival she would go mad with infatuation.