Princess, sorceress, seductress, wife, mother, and vengeful filicide – which is the true face of Medea, and why shouldn’t you try to paint her?
Medea
Ariadne, Mary Magdalene, a woman with a snake wound around her wrist, Medea after she had been abandoned by Jason, and the unusual story of Cydippe.
She tricks the daughters of King Pelias to murder him, then flees to Corinth, where Jason abandons her. She murders his bride with a poisoned wedding dress, then kills her two children. After that, she tries to kill the young Theseus.
She agrees to help Jason complete his three tasks and take possession of the Golden Fleece, in return for which Jason will marry her.
A link between the downfall of Medea and a series of stories about the hero Theseus, this was a subject for the Prix de Rome. Includes a little-known Poussin.
The decline and fall of Medea, as her sorcery is used for murder, and she kills her own infant sons. Paintings by Delacroix, Turner, and others.
An unusual story of sorcery used to restore youth has seldom been painted – even after Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein became popular.
Three tasks: yoking the fire-breathing bulls and ploughing in dragon’s teeth to generate an army, then getting past the fleece’s guardian dragon.
Princess, sorceress, seductress, wife, mother, and vengeful filicide – one of the most complex characters to paint. Known from her letter in Heroides, and a lost work by Ovid.
How Acontius won his bride, and how a portrait of her by an obscure Dutch painter may be part of a series. Mysteries solved, perhaps?
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