An Italien panel with a gorgoneion motif
Finely chased ormolu relief depicting the face of a gorgon with wide open eyes and thick, curly hair with two winged serpents. Applied on a Pompeii red marble ground with vertical grain in an oval moulded surround. The spandrels with silver plated bronze rosette appliques. H 33.5, W 28 cm.
Rome, workshop of Luigi Valadier, 1775 - 80.
The most famous of all beautiful Medusa heads is the Medusa Rondanini, which is named after its last Italian repository, the Palazzo Randanini in Rome. The impressive, slightly larger than life-size relief head dates back to Roman times, but is a copy of a Greek model that is associated with the legendary sculptor Phidias. The Gorgoneion presented here corresponds exactly to this type of beautiful Medusa. The Rondanini copy came into the possession of the Bavarian King Ludwig I in 1814, who bequeathed it to the Glyptothek in Munich as one of the first and most important exhibits. The famous collector Giuseppe Rondanini did not live to see its sale - he died in 1801. This panel with the Medusa head was probably created around the time of the Rondanini copy's spectacular change of ownership.
Literature
Cf. Colle/Griseri/Valeriani, Bronzi decorativi in Italia. Bronzisti e fonditori italiani dal Seicento all’Ottocento, Milan 2001, no. 67, for two similar relief appliques in bronze on marble, dated after 1815.