Andromeda Freed by Perseus

Ovid tells this story in the Metamorphoses. Andromeda, a king's daughter, is chained to a sea rock to pay for her mother's boast, and Perseus comes through the air to save her from a monster. In Ovid he flies on winged sandals. Painters of the late 1500s and early 1600s, when the subject was a favourite, often mounted him on the winged horse Pegasus instead, and that is how he appears here, small in the sky above the sea. The canvas dates from about 1611 or 1612, when Manetti still followed the polished manner of the Roman painter known as the Cavalier d'Arpino. The monster rears out of the water with its jaws wide open, and Andromeda twists away from it, her hair still neatly dressed. On the calm sea a small boat sails on, its crew apparently unaware, and shells lie scattered on the shore at her feet.