Artwork Information

Heav'n hath no rage like love to hatred turned

No Hell a fury like a woman scorned...

William Congreve (The Mourning Bride. Act lll, sc. 8)

When jilted by Jason, Medea revenged herself first by murdering their two children, and then destroying his father and new wife. While one would have thought that this provided ample material for Renaissance artists to draw on, it was her sorcery which proved most popular, as earlier artists tended to use Ovid as a source, rather than Euripides' play, Medea. In Thiry and Boyvin's engraving she is shown harnessing her magic powers to summons her chariot, her character implied, perhaps, by the grotesque characters included in the printed frame. (Monsters and Maidens, 2004)