Plate depicting the story of Perseus and Andromeda from the Isabella d'Este service

This plate is one of twenty-two surviving pieces of a splendid service made for Isabella d’Este, duchess of Mantua; it bears her coat-of-arms in the center. In spite of being constantly short of money, Isabella was an ambitious patron of the arts with, as she admitted, an “insatiable desire” for ancient Greek and Roman art. Tin-glazed earthenware, known as maiolica, was often decorated during this period with scenes from classical mythology. This plate features the exploits of the mythological Greek hero Perseus who beheaded the snake-haired gorgon Medusa (whose head he holds, at left) and rescued the princess Andromeda, chained to a rock by a monster. The composition is derived from a woodcut in a 1497 edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.