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Medea the Sorceress

Image credit: Southwark Art Collection

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This sinister beauty is Medea, the vengeful wife of Jason from ancient Greek mythology. Medea helped Jason with the insurmountable task of getting the Golden Fleece that he needed in order to obtain his inheritance. Medea brutally killed her own brother to ensure her and Jason’s safe escape. Yet Jason betrayed her love when he agreed to marry the beautiful princess Glauce. Here Medea gathers poisoned fungi from a serpent filled forest, which she will use to poison Glauce and her father. She holds in her hand the dagger that in some versions of the legend she will use to kill her own sons to reap vengeance on Jason. This tragic subject was popular amongst the nineteenth-century Pre-Raphaelite and Romantic painters. This work is by Valentine Cameron Prinsep who was tutored by George Frederic Watts and was a great friend of Frederic Leighton.

Southwark Heritage Centre

London

Title

Medea the Sorceress

Date

1880

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 182.8 x W 152.4 cm

Accession number

GA0650

Acquisition method

purchased from the executors of the artist's estate

Work type

Painting

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Southwark Heritage Centre

Walworth Road, London, Greater London SE17 1RY England

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