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Perseus and the Graiae

Image credit: Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales

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This extraordinary work occupies the boundary between painting and sculpture, and was the centrepiece of one of Burne-Jones’s most ambitious narrative schemes. Commissioned by the young conservative politician Arthur Balfour, this told the story of the Greek hero Perseus, who killed the gorgon Medusa. Six of the ten scenes were to be oil paintings and the others low relief panels. To find Medusa, Perseus needed the help of the Graiae, three sisters who had only one eye and one tooth between them. Perseus stole the eye while it was being passed between them, and forced them to tell him the way. He stands centrally over the linked, crouching figures of the sisters, and above him is a long Latin inscription which relates the story. Burne-Jones worked on the panel with his studio assistants and the gesso-specialist Osmund Weeks.

Title

Perseus and the Graiae

Date

1877

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 152 x W 169 cm

Accession number

NMW A 29299

Acquisition method

accepted by HM Government in lieu of tax and part purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund, 2008

Work type

Painting

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National Museum Cardiff

Cathays Park, Cardiff (Caerdydd) CF10 3NP Wales

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