Medea Three

The third painting dedicated to Medea and which references the conflicting emotions evoked by her story. Medea is vulnerable and reacts to betrayal by committing monstrous acts from which she escapes unpunished.

Using colours that could be found on Greek ceramics, the painting conflates a spiral with a suggestion of the serpent-drawn chariot in which Medea flees with the help of her grandfather Helios – a scene depicted on a Greek vases, suggesting a 2000 year old precedent of a possible painting.

A flatly painted figure is  put against a more painterly ground.

Bib. Euripides. 1963 Medea and other Plays. Penguin Classics.