Perseus and Andromeda by Charles Napier Kennedy: The Kiss After the Monster (1890)
The monster is already dead when the picture begins. In Charles Napier Kennedy’s Perseus and Andromeda (1890), the fight that most painters of the myth race towards has happened just out of frame. What is left is the minute after: a hero in silver armour standing in the surf, a princess leaning down from the rock that was meant to be her grave, and a kiss between them. The Gorgon’s head still hangs from his hand. The beast’s eye is still open. Kennedy paints the rescue as an embrace and lets the sea keep the violence. Charles Napier Kennedy, Perseus and Andromeda , 1890. Oil on canvas. Fine-art print available from the Sapiens Verbum print shop. 🖼️ Get this painting as a print → Quick facts Artist: Charles Napier Kennedy (1852–1898) Title: Perseus and Andromeda Date: 1890 Medium: Oil on canvas Subject: Perseus and Andromeda after the slaying of the sea monster, from the story told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses , Book 4 Pre...