Modern Medea

Hola Ms. Hollow's class!

I found this oil painting by Bernard Safran when searching for different representations of Medea through time, and this one really struck me. Safran wanted to represent famous biblical or mythological figures in a time that was other than their own, to demonstrate their timeless-ness. In this case he chose Medea, and gave her the likeness of an elegant and well-off middle-aged woman of the early sixties, clutching her two fair-haired boys, plain and nonchalant in their innocence. You could picture the three living in a dark mansion somewhere in the New England countryside, seeing they're obviously wealthy, Medea wearing pearls and a somber velvet dress.

I love this representation because the more you look at it, and what it symbolizes, the more it makes you shiver. An unknowing or self-absorbed businessman could buy this work on a whim without batting an eye or researching its origin, and hang it above his tacky fireplace (stereotypes hehe) thinking it to be an elegant and retro family portrait of a respectable family. It would never occur to him that the painting he can now brag about at his dinner parties is in fact that of a jilted woman turned psychopath and about to murder her own children, and an ancient figure of death and destruction. The reason why this painting is so successful is its ambiguity. If one was unaware of the myth, it might even be charming. One could so easily imagine this woman and her children in the flesh, carrying about their seemingly ordinary lives! But there is something strangely and intensely ominous in the fiery livid sky above their heads, and the looming stare Medea holds on the viewer. She seems both proud and unsettled, fixing her stare on the viewer as though she were wordlessly holding him as a witness to her future crime. The colors are also grim, with Medea's black dress signifying impeding death and mourning, contrasted with the celestial and unearthly (divine?) light that outlines the figures.

To add to the creepiness of the piece, Safran used two local boys from his neighborhood to model, and his close friend to portray Medea. Another dark thought: infanticide is grimly still present in the world today. As this painting shows, cunning Medea could perfectly still be living among us, undetected.

The thought of a modern Medea also reminded me of the film Shutter Island, by Martin Scorsese, where Teddy Daniels' (or is it Andrew Laeddis? ;) ) wife murders their three children, turned crazy out of her husbands' neglect.