How does this artwork elucidate its Historical context?
The painting has been praised by art historians and art critics because it possesses aesthetics, cosmological and political implications. It also accurately depicts the classical stories by focusing on the theme of beauty. In terms of political characteristics, the painting contains many contemporary dignitaries such as Filippo Strozzi the Younger and Lorenzo de' Medici, future Duke of Urbino. Strozzi is depicted as the man with a white turban on the right hand corner of the painting. He is supposed to be Ceppheus. Lorenzo de' Medici's portrait is supposed to be Perseus. Piero di Cosimo signs the painting by putting himself in it as the elderly man facing the viewer. The depiction of the sea monster, in the painting, is an allusion to the return of the Medici household to power in Florence. Giorgio Vasari praised the painting for its beautiful use of color and for the depiction of an original sea monster in a way that no one in the past has done.
Giorgio Vasari Florence Filippo Strozzi the Younger Piero di Cosimo Lorenzo de' Medici Perseus