Before Bacchus, find the Medusa — a severed head painted on a convex shield, originally made as a gift for Ferdinand I de' Medici.
It was a functional object as much as a painting: ancient tradition held that the Medusa's gaze was so terrible it turned onlookers to stone, so depicting her on a shield was thought to paralyse the enemy in battle.
The expression is genuine horror.
The snakes are still writhing.
The mouth is open mid-scream.
The model may have been Caravaggio himself.
It is one of the most viscerally disturbing objects in the museum.
