The story of Perseus and Medusa, an interpretation of its meaning, and the topos of decapitation -- Cellini's Perseus and Medusa: the paradigm of control -- Renaissance political theory and paradoxes of power -- The goddess as other and same -- The sexual symbolism of the Perseus and Medusa -- The public face of justice -- Classical and grotesque polities -- Eleonora di Toledo and the image of the mother goddess
Summary
Cellini's Perseus and Medusa and the Loggia dei Lanzi: Configurations of the Body of State explores the role that maternal influence played in the formation of Cosimo I de' Medici's absolutist state
