Antefix with Medusa

6th century B.C.

Images of women could signify power in Greek art, even when shown as the grotesque antithesis of beauty, the Gorgon. While mythology casts the monstrous Gorgon Medusa and her sisters as wicked—again the external manifestation of internal character—the Gorgon was regularly incorporated in art as a symbol of military victory, appearing on countless breastplates of victorious generals and leaders in the Greek and Roman empires.

Terracotta

6 1/4 x 10 x 3/4 in. (15.9 x 25.4 x 1.9 cm)

Gift of Torkom Demirjian in memory of Dr. Felix Burda Münich, Germany and Seattle, Washington

2002.40

Provenance: Georg Brosi Collection, Basel, Switzerland, by 1965; 1975 to Torkom Demirjian; gift 2002 to Seattle Art Museum

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

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