Bust of Minerva - Baudet

Bust of Minerva - BaudetA print of tienne Baudet's Bust of Minerva a 17th century French line engraving after an antique bust of the Roman goddess of wisdom, of the kind Baudet produced to transmit the marbles of Rome to the rest of Europe. Minerva was the Roman counterpart of the Greek Athena goddess of wisdom, strategic warfare, craft and the arts. Together with Jupiter and Juno she made up the Capitoline Triad, the three great deities of the Roman state cult, whose temple

won the sorceress Medea to his side at Colchis

which renders him invisible

Puget read the story as an allegory on the limits of human strength — hubris

still tilts slightly toward hidden drains that catch the rain that falls through the open eye of the building

immortal head under a great rock

The myth assembles Perseus' equipment from divine gifts: winged sandals from Hermes

He carried Helen off to Troy

the foundational text of Western literature

His face is broken — a cauliflower ear

In Dutch Mannerist print design he appears over and over

how he threw in his household's pewter plates to save the pour

The Judgement of Paris and the hand-off of Helen were among the most painted subjects of the European tradition from antiquity onward