Florentine artist Piero di Cosimo combined in his work harmonious, spiritualized images of the High Renaissance with love for the detailed depiction of the surrounding world, which he perceived from the Dutch painters. In the presented picture, written in the late period of creativity, the master used the ancient Greek myth of Perseus, saving Andromeda.
Returning after the victory over the Gorgon Medusa, the hero saw a girl tied to a rock. It was Andromeda, which the inhabitants of her home country sacrificed to a sea monster, devouring people, for the sake of getting rid of it. Perseus in his winged sandals and a magic helmet, which made him invisible, is depicted in the picture twice – flying over the sea and standing on the back of a monster, swinging a sword.
On the left Andromeda suffers and the frightened people hide behind their cloaks, and the people start to laugh and wave the laurel branches, glorifying the hero. Including various events in the composition and their fairy-tale interpretation testify to the still unextended traditions of the previous century-quattrocento, but the soft outlines of figures and the landscape open wide in the distance suggests that this work was created in the era of the High Renaissance.
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