The Perseus Story

We're in the Baring Room at Southampton City Art Gallery. And the Baring Room is special to us because it tells a story. If you've been learning about greatness at home or at school, you might know this story already. It is the Perseus story. And the artwork we're going to look at is by an artist called the Edward Burne-Jones. And underneath his name you can see two dates. 1833 to 1898. Now, do those dates look right for ancient Greece? No, they don't. They're about 2,000 years too late. And in Britain at that time, Queen Victoria was on the throne, which means Burne-Jones is a Victorian artist. A Victorian artist retelling a story from ancient Greece. Now, I'm going to tell you a secret about Burne-Jones. He didn't like being a Victorian. He didn't like the Victorian world. And he wanted to escape to somewhere purer, somewhere more beautiful. And the way he did that was through his art. He painted stories such as Sleeping Beauty, The Legend of King Arthur, and of course, Greatness. I'm going to tell you one more thing about Burne-Jones before we get started. And that is, the person's story is made up of 10 paintings. He was commissioned by a man who went on to become Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, commissioned his paint to create 10 paintings that told the story. He worked on these for nine years. But guess what? Burne-Jones never completed the Finnish Royal Paintings. And the artworks we're going to look at are not done using oil paints. Thick or itchy paint that some artists like to use. They're not done on canvas, on material that's been stretched out over frame. They're done using a paint called gouache, which is very similar to watercolour paint. You know, a lot of you would use watercolours. And they're done on paper. Paper can be very, very delicate and fragile. And that's one of the reasons that it's a little bit dark in here, is so that we can protect those works on paper. Shall we get started with the story? So Burne-Jones had 10 paintings in which he could tell the story for the series of work he was making for Balfour. The problem is, Perseus has quite a long story. So in this first painting, he's done a little bit of a cheat. The painting is divided into two. And it actually shows us two different scenes from the story. So we're going to start off looking at the first scene. On the left, we can see Perseus. He's curled up. He's covering himself. And he looks downcast. Some of you might also have noticed, and might be wondering why he hasn't got any clothes on. And it's worth telling you now, right at the beginning, that throughout these paintings, Burne-Jones does show off characters without their clothes on. And if we see them naked, he's giving us a little bit of a clue. He's telling us that the character at that point in the story is vulnerable, that the character is in danger. So we know straight away, seeing Perseus curled up without any clothes on, that he's in trouble. And someone's come to see him. We don't know if it's a man or a woman. We don't know if they're young or old. Because they are in disguise. They are covered by a cloak. Right at the top, in the distance, you can see a citadel. And in the citadel lives the king of the island, Polydectes. Polydectes wants to marry Perseus's mother. But Perseus's mother, Dana, does not want to marry Polydectes. And while Perseus is around, who is strong and young and brave, he will protect her. He will look after her. So Polydectes, in his citadel, comes up with a plan. A plan to get rid of Perseus. And the plan is this. He holds a feast. And every guest at the feast has to bring him a gift. They have to bring him a horse. Now, Perseus, although he's brave and strong, he's also poor. And he doesn't have a horse. So he turns up at the feast empty-handed. And Polydectes says to him, Don't worry, Perseus. You can bring me a different present. You can bring me the head of the Gorgon Medusa. Now, why is that a difficult thing to do? Have any of you heard of Medusa? Medusa, instead of human hair, she has a head of snakes. And if she looks you in the eye, she will turn you to stone forever. She's been cursed by the goddess Athena. And it is an impossible task. But Perseus is young and brave and strong and foolish. So he says, yes, of course, of course I can bring you the head. And he goes and he sits down by the riverbank. And he thinks, what have I done? I can't do it. And a mysterious stranger comes to visit him. Now, in the second part of the painting, the mysterious stranger has taken off her cloak and revealed herself to be, in fact, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and of war. The goddess who cursed Medusa in the first place to be this monster with snakes for hair who cannot look you in the eye. And she wants to help Perseus on his mission. So she gives him two gifts. She gives him a sword. What's the sword for? To cut off Medusa's head. She gives him a mirror. What's the mirror for? Well, if you look Medusa in the eye, you're turned to stone. But if you look at her reflection, you are safe. So the mirror is for him to use to sneak up on her like that. So Perseus still has a problem. He doesn't know where to find Medusa. He doesn't know where she is. But he knows where her cousins live. Her cousins are the three gray sisters. And you can see that they live in a barren landscape, a place where nothing grows. They live at the edge of the world. We know now that the world is round, that it's a sphere. But in ancient Greece, they believed it was flat and that the gray sisters lived right at the very edge of it. Something funny about the gray sisters. Now between them, how many eyes should they have? Two, four, six. How many eyes do they have? One. And they have to share it when they want to see something. They also, between them, have only one tooth. And if they want to eat something, they have to pass the tooth between them. And it's because they can't see that we see them crouch over, reaching out to feel what's around them. Perseus, with Athena on his side, is no longer so vulnerable. And so here, instead of seeing him naked, we actually see him in a suit of armor, like a knight or a soldier might wear. Perseus says to the gray sisters, will you tell me where to find Magista? And the gray sisters, who are loyal to their cousin, say no. So this is where Perseus does something a little bit naughty. And if you look at him, you'll see that he has reached there and he has snatched the arm. And he says to them, tell me where Magista is, or I won't give you your eye mask. And so the gray sisters have no choice. And they're directed this way. In this third painting, Perseus has arrived at the edge of the sea. And he's met one, two, three semens. And these semens really contrast with the gray sisters we've just looked at. The gray sisters hunched over close to the floor in the gray land. And the semens stood up elegantly, gracefully. If you look at their heads, they're kind of tilted on one side to make them look more appealing. If you look at their feet, there's something very strange going on. If your eyes stood in water, the water would lap over our toes, right? But here, it's almost like it's ice. It's almost frozen. I don't know why Ben Jones painted it like that, but maybe he's just trying to show us that these themes are magical. And these magical nymphs give Perseus three gifts. So he's already got the sword and the mirror from Athena. And now he also has a helmet of invisibility. Winged sandals to help him fly. And over here, a fan. What's the fan for? Well, Medusa's powers work even in death. So to avoid him turning innocent bystanders or himself, in fact, to stone, he has a fan to put her head in once she's been decapitated. So here, you actually meet Medusa for the first time. Remember how she's meant to be a monster with snakes for hair that can immediately kill whoever she meets? If you look at this painting of her, I don't think she looks very scary. I don't think she looks very evil. I think she looks a little bit scary. I think her face is very pale. And the hair, well, it could be snakes, or it could just be curls. And I don't know, but what I think the artist might be doing is giving us a little picture, a little glimpse into what Medusa was like before she became a monster. Because apparently, before Athena cursed her, she was one of the most beautiful women in the world. She's looking straight ahead of her. And at her feet are her two victims. If you look at how they're sitting, they look quite worried, don't they? One's holding the other. And instead of looking straight ahead like Medusa, they're looking to the sun. They're looking behind them as if they can sense someone entering their lair, someone's approaching. And that someone is, of course, Perseus. We can see him. They can't, because he is wearing that helmet of invisibility. He has a sword at the ready. And he's using the mirror to sneak up on her to avoid looking directly in her eye. We're now in the fifth painting. And we can see that Perseus has, in fact, become Medusa. Instead of the hair that could be curls, could be snakes. They are definitely snakes. Okay, we see them there. We see them dripping onto the floor, covered in scales. And hands on Medusa's neck are climbing two other creatures. One of them is Chrysor. Chrysor is a demigod. Now, demigod means half, so he is half human, half god. And we see Pegasus. Some of you might know Pegasus already, a mythical creature. And the reason they're climbing up on Medusa's neck is because Medusa is, in fact, pregnant. Not pregnant with human children. Certainly not pregnant with babies. Pregnant with a fully grown demigod and a winged horse. And has her head chopped off, ashes, out flies Pegasus and disappears. And we don't see them again in this story. But the more pregnant you really, the more you'll come across them. We're going to go now and look at painting number six. You remember at the beginning I said that the aunt, the 10th finished oil painting, he was meant to produce for Arthur Balfour, the Prime Minister, a gouache painting on paper. We can see here that the artwork is not actually 100% finished. Can you see these little white lines making a grid in the corner? Okay. Well, those would help Bernd Jones produce the artwork. So before he did this, he would have sketched it out on a much smaller scale. Over sketch, he would have drawn a grid with lines across and lines down. On his larger piece of paper, he would have drawn another grid with the same number of squares. And then he would have copied the squares up one at a time to make sure that everything's the right size in relation to each other, that everything's the right proportion. And that's actually a technique that artists have been using for hundreds of years. What can we see in the painting itself, aside from the grid? We can see Medusa prone on the floor. We can see her sisters flying around in panic. And we can see Perseus beginning to fly away. And as he's flying away, he's putting her head into his satchel. Now, some of you may have noticed that the bag he has here is very different to the bag he had in the third painting. And you might want to rewind to compare and contrast. Often when children come here, they spot it straight away and they want to know why. And what I say is, these were not Bernto's finished paintings. They were what we would call preparatory studies. He's experimenting and he's practicing with different designs. You might remember that at the beginning, he said there were 10 paintings. And you might also have noticed that rather than being mounted on the wall and in a frame, we're looking at this one on a needle. That's because it is in fact a reproduction, okay? It's on poster board. And the reason I'm using a reproduction is that some of our paintings are on loan to an art gallery in Bournemouth called Russell Cates Gallery. But people love to see Perseus theories, so we have this reproduction so that you can still have the whole story while you're in the room. What does the painting show us? It shows us an enormously powerful giant, a titan. And the titan went to war on God, which made the gods furious. And the gods decided to punish them. And the person you see being punished here, his name is Atlas. And if you've ever used an atlas at home or at school, the atlases that use those books of maps are named after him. He's been punished by having to hold something up in his arms for eternity. But what is it? Have a closer look. Can you see those stars? And can you see there? There's a lion. That's Leo the lion. And there is a crab. That's Cancer the crab. These are actually constellations, star signs. And it's the stars that Atlas has been condemned to carry about him forever. As he flies by, Perseus takes pity on him and wants to end his suffering. Look carefully at what he's holding. He's pulled Medusa's head from the back and he's turning Atlas to stone. So, Perseus has slain Medusa. He has the head. He has flown past Atlas on his way home. He's taken pity on Atlas. And on his way back to the island, back to King Polydectes, he passes another character. We can see straight away that she is vulnerable. She is naked. And she is also chained to a rock in the middle of the sea. And if you look at Perseus's toe there, you can see it's dipping into the water. And the water's lapping over her. Not like with those three sea nymphs we saw a moment ago. Who is this person? Her name is Andromeda and she is a princess. And her parents, the king and queen, were so proud of her that they grew proud and they began to boast. They boasted that their daughter was the most beautiful woman in all the world. They boasted that her hair was as soft as silk. They boasted that her skin was soft as peaches. The gods were wild with rage. And the gods decided they must be punished. And they said to the king, you can either leave your daughter, your pride and joy, as a sacrifice to be eaten by Poseidon the sea monster, Poseidon the god of the sea, or we will create a terrible storm, a tsunami, a tiger wave that will kill all your people. So the king and queen were left with no choice. Either everyone must die or Andromeda must die. And here is Andromeda, left to be eaten by Poseidon the sea monster. Perseus flies off. He takes pity on her and he comes down to neuter her. And he has, of course, decided that he will need to fight the sea monster to free her. Now, I don't know about you, but if I was about to fight a sea monster, I think it would be really useful to be invisible and to be wearing your helmet of invisibility. But have a look here. What's he done with the helmet? He's taken it off. Why has he taken it off? We don't know, but we suspect it's because he's fallen in love with Andromeda. And he wants her to see how brave and strong and handsome he is, so that she can fall in love back. So the ninth artwork is the other artwork that's missing, which means we're back at Newton again. And I'll just fetch it for you. Okay, here we are. And here we can see Perseus has put his helmet back on, thank goodness, to fight this sea monster. This sea monster with multiple necks and multiple heads. Andromeda does not look to me very terrified, does she? She looks quite casual. She looks quite relaxed when she stands on one leg with her head tilted to the sand. So I think she must have a lot of faith in Perseus' powers. What has Perseus got with him in his band that would kill the monster instantaneously? He's got Medusa's head, and yet he's choosing to fight with a sword. Why? Well, again, we suspect it's because he is in love with Andromeda, and he wants her to see him at his strongest and to show up to fight him again. Good riddance, do you think? The sea monster of Perseus? Yeah, of course it's Perseus. And in our last artwork, our last painting, we see Perseus and Andromeda after them. In this painting, Perseus and Andromeda are holding hands. And in his other hand, up in the trees, you can see he's holding Medusa's head. And instead of looking up at the head, which would turn into stone, they're looking down into the water at the head's reflection. Now, this artwork is quite different to the other nine. And one of the main differences is that in it, you can see things growing. You can see apples. You can see trees. You can see grass. You can see flowers. What do you think about the colours? How are the colours different to those in the other paintings? There's a lot more range. The others are mainly browns and greys and earthy colours. Whereas these are much more vibrant. You've got the beautiful blues reflecting a little bit of gold in her dress. You've got the red of her cloak. You've got over here the red of the apples and the blue of the panties. Why has Ben Jones chosen to do this in this artwork and this artwork only? I don't know for sure. But often when children come to the gallery, they tell me that this is a happy ending. They tell me that now they're married, life can begin. They can tell me that the danger is gone because Medusa is gone and the sea monster is gone and the colours are there because the characters are safe. However, Percy's journey is not quite finished. This is where Ben Jones' theory finishes. He still needs to get back to the island. He still needs to save his mother Dany from the king Polydectylus. So after these paintings finish, Perseus and Andromeda travel back to the island. And Perseus marches up to the citadel on the top of the hill. And he marches in to a feast. And some people say that the feast that's taking place is the same feast that had started when he left, when he went on his adventures in Perseus. He marches in and he says to the king, Go eat a head of Medusa. And the king says, It's not possible, I don't believe you. And Perseus reaches into his bag and says, In that case, I'll have to show you. And Polydectylus, the king, and all of his henchmen are turned to stone and damaged. What becomes of the head? Do you remember Athene, the goddess of wisdom and war? Perseus gives it to her as a gift. It's a banksy present, if you like. And she has it mounted onto her shoes and she wears it as she rides out to Bacchus. Thank you for listening to me and I hope you've enjoyed the Perseus story here at the Southampton City Art Gallery today.