Medea Rejuvenating Aeson

The painting depicts the sorceress Medea, who convinced the daughters of the old king that she could rejuvenate him, demonstrating her powers by changing a ram she had slain and thrown into a cauldron into a lamb. But once Pelias (who had usurped the throne of Jason’s father) had been killed Medea refused to resuscitate him. The literary source is Euripides, who narrates how Medea fled the scene in a chariot drawn by dragons who carried her off safely to Athens. The ending of the story is illustrated in the background, like a theatrical epilogue. This small picture is a distillation of the esoteric and literary culture of the end of the 16th century, conceived as a nocturne with poetic effects of lighting and all the trappings of the magic practices of the time.