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The poses of two of them are based on antique sculptures, a fact which would not have been lost on Giordano’s contemporaries.

Not only does he show Phineas and his companions from three different angles, as one would be able to view a sculpture in three-dimensions, but he also adopts a witty conceit for the portrayal of the petrified warriors. He is making a clear reference to it here, and as a painter he is demonstrating the power of his art. Giordano was no doubt aware of an ongoing debate – or paragone – over whether painting or sculpture was the superior art form. Their solidity greatly contrasts with Perseus’s graceful pose and the movement suggested by his flowing costume, billowing drapery and the fluttering plumes in his hat. The striding figures of the attackers are statuesque, their feet firmly planted in the ground. The upper body of the man in the foreground, seen from behind, is grey, but his legs are still pink with life. One has already turned to stone, perhaps because he is closest to Medusa’s head. His two companions are suffering a similar fate. His head and his whole left side are already stone grey and his mouth is frozen in a petrified scream, but his right arm and right leg are painted with pinkish hues, indicating that the transformation is not yet complete. Phineas is most likely the figure at the far left wearing the elaborate helmet and breastplate. His attackers have had no time to react, and Giordano has vividly portrayed their flesh turning from pink to stone grey. He averts his eyes, because all those who look on Medusa immediately turn to stone. Heavily outnumbered, Perseus has unveiled the severed head of the gorgon Medusa, who he had recently slain. Giordano has chosen to depict the moment when Phineas, supported by his followers, attacks Perseus. This is the wedding feast of Perseus and Andromeda, which has been violently interrupted by Phineas, to whom Andromeda was formerly betrothed. He has illustrated a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (V, 1–235), albeit with a certain amount of creative licence. This large, dramatic painting is one of Giordano’s most ambitious representations of a mythological subject.