The Shield with the head of Medusa, is an oil on canvas made in about 1597 by the Italian

painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Today it is kept in the Uffizi Gallery in room 43.
The history of the work.

Caravaggio created two versions of Medusa the first is an

oil painting on canvas, mounted on a fig wood shield (50x48 cm), made between 1596 and 1598.
According to some scholars, it was the original work, signed by Caravaggio .

The Uffizi shield is an oil painting mounted on a poplar wood shield, and slightly larger than the first
version (60x55 cm). The work was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Maria Bourbon del Monte
and donated to Grand Duke Ferdinando I de 'Medici, to enrich his collection of weapons. The Grand
Duke exhibited the work in a room in the Gallery, on a mannequin on horseback dressed in the
shutter.

IL MITO DI MEDUSA
Il mito di Medusa era ben noto: essa aveva un potere terrificante perché mutava gli uomini in
pietra ma Perseo la sconfisse con un atto di rara astuzia. Egli le rivolse lo scudo a specchio e
contro di essa scatenò il suo stesso potere. Medusa venne così pietrificata attraverso il suo
stesso sguardo e successivamente decapitata.
Descrizione dell’opera.
The "wheel" painted by Caravaggio highlights the painter's great perspective ability, who
manages to cancel the effects of the shape of the shield. The face of the Medusa is full of
incredible vitality. Caravaggio paints the jellyfish in the moment of collision immediately following
the forcing of the head. The mouth screams and lets glimpse the tongue and teeth, the moist
eyes are hallucinated and the eyebrows frown. The nine snakes move like mad and blood pours
from his neck.