Revealed secrets of the Medusa by Caravaggio

FLORENCE, ITALY – Extraordinary pictures showed unequivocally the genesis and the timing of the “First Medusa” by Caravaggio. This masterpiece anticipates the most famous “shield” exhibited at the Galleria degli Uffizi. This is the work presented at the Foreign Press Association headquarters in Rome by art historian Mina Gregori, Claudio Strinati (Ministry for Cultural Heritage) and the deputy director of the Museum of Galileo, Filippo Camerota.

Gregori pointed out that “the realism represented by serpents tangled on the head of Medusa, shows clearly the character of Caravaggio restless.” The scientific evidence collected from the studies of Professor Maurizio Seracini, an engineer and director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art architecture and archeology (UCSD), has outlined the stages of construction, the nuances not visible to the naked eye of strands of hair.

Seracini has also highlighted the difficulties encountered by Merisi techniques during production of the masterpiece and detectable, for example, by the presence on the Medusa’s left side of the face of an eye positioned differently and by the consequent inclination of the mouth deferred.