Medusa

At the end of the 19th century, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and the determinism propounded by philosopher Hippolyte Taine had an impact beyond the scientific sphere. They radically changed artists' conception of the body, and these scientific principles enabled them to legitimise their chimerical assemblages. Bourdelle had clearly taken this on board, when he depicted the terrible, snake-haired creature Medusa. One of three Gorgons, Medusa could turn a person to stone by looking at them. She appeared again and again from Bourdelle's pen (Gorgon Head, study 1884) and chisel (Door Knocker, 1922–1925). Through Medusa's head, he could express the animal extraction of all humankind and assert its anatomical collusion.

It is no coincidence that artists have chosen the bizarre or shapeless forms of the toad and spider, amphibian and invertebrate, to represent the condition of the monster. No form is more flowing or more tenacious than the unwinding of these snakes of the soul. Bourdelle recognised them as his own. He exorcised their petrifying darkness. From this dark matter, he created works of art.

Colin Lemoine