Perseus Freeing Andromeda

Perseus Freeing Andromeda, painted in 1639 and now in the Museo del Prado, depicts the mythological rescue of the Ethiopian princess chained to a rock as a sacrifice to the sea monster Cetus — rescued by Perseus, who had just slain the Gorgon Medusa. The story was among the most popular mythological subjects in Baroque painting, combining heroic action, the nude female figure, and supernatural drama. Jordaens's version, characteristically, resists the idealising conventions of Italian or French approaches, presenting Andromeda as a physically convincing woman and Perseus as an earthly hero rather than an Olympian demigod. The Prado canvas dates from the most productive decade of Jordaens's mature career, when his mythological productions rivalled those of any painter in Europe in compositional ambition. The Spanish royal collection's appetite for Flemish mythological painting made the Prado a natural home for a work of this scale and ambition.

The composition manages the narrative's several required elements — the chained woman, the arriving hero, the departing monster, the observing crowd — within a dynamically organised space. Perseus's arrival from above creates a strong diagonal thrust meeting the horizontal of the chained Andromeda below. The sea monster is rendered with the inventive creature-making of a Flemish animal painter let loose on classical mythology.