3-015-580 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Perseus Rescuing Andromeda, 1594/95. The Greek hero Perseus, traveling home after slaying Medusa, spotted the princess Andromeda chained to a rock. He rescued her from being sacrificed to a sea monster and won her hand in marriage. This painting depicts a version of the ancient myth popularized in sixteenth-century Italy, in which Perseus arrives astride Pegasus, the winged horse born from Medusa’s blood. Small mythological scenes like this made Arpino one of Rome’s most fashionable painters among sophisticated connoisseurs.