Piero di Cosimo- Perseus Rescuing Andromeda

The proportions here are very simple, being based on two side-by-side equilateral triangles, which gives the panel a width : height ratio of √3 : 1, which is approximately 1.732 :1. The groups of small figures in the foreground are clustered beneath these triangles, while the flying Perseus seems to skate on the rising diagonal, which also seems to brace the female figure at lower left. The descending diagonal similarly aligns with the instrument held by the dark-skinned figure in the middle of the lower right quadrant. The horizontal midline of the panel aligns with Andromeda’s pubis, the lower tusks of the monster, and the widest area of the watery inlet.

The orange verticals here divide the left and right quadrants of the panel from its middle quadrants. The left one aligns with the structure in the background, with the edge of the water in the middle ground, and with the knee of the woman in the left foreground. The right one locates the front leg of the flying Perseus, and the base of the long instrument held by the woman in the right foreground. The sloping orange lines rising and descending from the endpoints of the orange verticals help to locate other elements of the composition, such as the bodily alignment of the sword-wielding Perseus, the hand position of the flying Perseus, and the knee and dress of the figures in the middle foreground.

The yellow horizontal, which lies at ¾ of the panels height, locates Perseus’s sword blade, and the shape of the landform just to its left. The shallow yellow diagonal just below trace the angle of Andromeda’s flinch, the border of the water just behind the monster’s head, the alignment of Perseus’s shoulders, the right-hand border of the water, and some outlines of the village in the right background.

Andromeda’s head and gaze, and the tip of Perseus’s curved sword, lie along the green diagonal in the strip between ½ and ¾ of the panel height. The green horizontal in the middle of this strip corresponds closely with the horizon line.

The blue verticals stand 1/8 and 7/8 of the way across the panel. They appear to help locate the large standing figures in the foreground. The shallow blue diagonals connecting their lower endpoints to the midpoints of the panel’s sides locate features including Andromeda’s foot, the adjacent coastline, and the body arrangement of the figures in the foreground and right middle ground. These details, combined with the aspect ratio of the panel, demonstrate the fundamental role of this simple armature in defining the outlines of the composition.

This painting is the property of the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy. This analysis was based on the image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piero_di_Cosimo_-_Liberazione_di_Andromeda_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg