Head of Medusa | Peter Paul Rubens | 1618 Franz Ludwig Catel Vermeer depicts a young woman

Vermeer depicts a young woman seated at a virginal

creating a sense of depth and movement

Rembrandt's use of light and shadow brings a dramatic intensity to the scene

The island

Head of Medusa | Peter Paul Rubens | 1618 Franz Ludwig Catel Vermeer depicts a young womanAbout the artwork: Rubens captures the severed head of Medusa at the very climax of her myth, moments after the hero Perseus has decapitated her. Her eyes, once capable of turning men to stone, are now frozen open in a grotesque expression of terror and agony. But Rubens does not stop at horrorhe transforms the myth into a Baroque spectacle. The painter surrounds her lifeless face with a chaotic mass of writhing snakes that seem to spill out of the