Caravaggio's Medusa (Medusa Marinara), from The Peter Norton Family Christmas Project / Vik Muniz
About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 1999/1.108
- Title
- Caravaggio's Medusa (Medusa Marinara), from The Peter Norton Family Christmas Project
- Artist
- Vik Muniz
- Artist Nationality
- American
- Artist Life Dates
- born 1961
- Medium and Support
- photographic image on porcelain
- Object Creation Date
- 1999
- Object Creation Place
- North and Central America (continent)
- United States (nation)
- Creation Place 1
- North and Central America (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- United States (nation)
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Peter Norton Family Foundation
- Dimensions
- 31.7 cm x 31.7 cm x 3.2 cm (12 1/2 in. x 12 1/2 in. x 1 1/4 in.)
- Century
- 20th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Photograph
- Physical Description
- Porcelain plate imprinted with the photographic image of a female head in pasta and marinara sauce.
- Subject Matter
- Muniz appropriates the head of Medusa from Caravaggio’s painting of the snake-haired Gorgon from Greek mythology, "Medusa" painted in ca. 1597. This piece is typical of Muniz’s work in which he recreates a well-known image from art history, “draws” it in an untraditional medium, such as sugar, thread, chocolate syrup, or as in this work, pasta and marinara sauce, and photographs it. However, unlike many of his other works in which the photograph is the end product, in this piece, he went one step further and transposed the photographic image on to a plate.
- Primary Keywords
- appropriation
- food
- heads (representations)
- mythology (literary genre)
- plates (dishes)
- Secondary Keywords
- associated concepts
- concepts in the arts
- containers
- containers by function or context
- containers for serving and consuming food
- culinary containers
- descriptors
- dishes
- figures (representations)
- genres in the arts
- historical, theoretical and critical concepts
- literary, oral and motion picture genres
- materials
- materials by function
- objects we use
- people and culture
- vessels for serving and consuming food
- visual works
- visual works by subject type
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 2592 x 1830
- File Size
- 631 KB
- Record
- 1999/1.108
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1999-sl-1.108/1999_1_108.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Related Links
Portfolios
- In public portfolios
Cite this Item
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- Full citation
-
"Caravaggio's Medusa (Medusa Marinara), from The Peter Norton Family Christmas Project; Vik Muniz." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1999-sl-1.108/1999_1_108.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 26, 2025.
