Which Flemish painter created the dramatic seventeenth-century painting Head of Medusa?

Peter Paul Rubens created the dramatic painting Head of Medusa.

Rubens’s Head of Medusa is a highly detailed Baroque image showing Medusa after decapitation. Snakes coil around the head, while smaller creatures intensify the scene’s sense of horror and movement. The work reflects Rubens’s interest in violent mythology, natural history, and the dramatic visual effects prized by seventeenth-century patrons.

The painting is often associated with Frans Snyders, who specialized in animals and may have contributed to the depiction of the snakes and other creatures. Such collaboration was common in Flemish workshops, where artists combined specialist skills.

Rubens was one of the most influential painters of the Flemish Baroque. His Medusa should not be confused with Caravaggio’s earlier shield painting, which also depicts the severed head but uses a very different composition.