Perseus with the Head of Medusa,

1898

<p>This statuette represents the Greek mythological hero Perseus, who famously slew Medusa, one of the snake-haired Gorgons whose gaze turned onlookers into stone. (Perseus prevailed by looking only at her reflection in his polished shield, a gift to him from Minerva, the goddess of wisdom.) The sculpture was made as a decorative item, probably to be displayed in a drawing room.</p><p>Pomeroy, who learned his fluid, naturalistic style from the French sculptor Jules Dalou and later travels in Italy, had exhibited a full-size plaster version of this subject at London’s Royal Academy in 1898, and subsequently produced a series of smaller bronze figures, such as this one.</p>