Perseus and Andromeda (Leighton) daughters of Poseidon, the god of the sea. When the nymphs became aware of her claims, they protested to their father, who retaliated by calling up a sea monster called Cetus to patrol and wreak havoc along the coastline of Ethiopia placing Cassiope's kingdom at risk. In response the Queen, together with her husband Cepheus, decided to sacrifice her daughter, Princess Andromeda, to the monster. Andromeda was chained to a rock at the edge of the sea as an offering to the monster. Perseus was travelling back home on his winged horse, Pegasus, after battling with Medusa. He rescued Andromeda
Medusa Rondanini it was overlooked by the great art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann, perhaps distracted by Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà in the same collection. It was much admired, nevertheless, by Goethe, who was struck by its "unspeakable anguished stare of death" and said of it, when first bringing it to the attention of art historians in 1786, that "the mere knowledge that such a work could be created and still exists in the world makes me twice the person I was." When Antonio Canova made a marble "Perseus with the Head of Medusa" (1798-1801), to take the place of the Apollo Belvedere sent