Researcher ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3814-0561

Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Art History

Reader 1

Jody Valentine

Reader 2

Michelle Oing

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

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© 2026 Samantha N Riesgo-Zamudio

Abstract

Considering the long history of appropriation of classical art and subjects as a means to promote conservative powers and ideologies, this thesis looks at a contemporary reclamation of a classical subject attempting to advance a progressive cause. Often interpreted as a response to Benvenuto Cellini’s classicized Perseus with the Head of Medusa (1545), which presents strong patriarchal themes, Luciano Garbati’s Medusa with the Head of Perseus seemingly accomplishes a progressive reclamation as the statue has been acclaimed as a symbol for the Me Too Movement. However, Garbati’s Medusa has received mixed reactions, with some criticizing its feminist reinterpretation as superficial. Thus, this thesis aims to determine which elements of Medusa with the Head of Perseus are truly subversive, and which undermine its feminist reading. This is accomplished by analyzing the statue with Cellini’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa as its appropriated base. Analysis of both Cellini’s Perseus and Garbati’s Medusa centers visual components of the statues, the pieces’ engagements with the public spaces in which they are presented, and the artists’ intent and compositional choices expressed in primary sources. Ultimately, feminist ideas are identified within Garbati’s work, but weakened primarily by an adherence to classicism.

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