A collaborative work between Peter Paul Rubens and Frans Snyders, the painting captures the immediate aftermath of Medusa's decapitation by Perseus, with blood still fresh and serpents writhing from her lifeless head. The snakes, rendered with striking realism, include non-venomous European grass snakes and vipers—mediaeval symbols of ungratefulness—adding layers of symbolic meaning to the already gruesome scene. Rubens and his workshop concentrated on Medusa’s ghastly visage, her wide-open, bloodshot eyes frozen in an expression of terror and agony, while Snyders, a specialist in animal depiction, lent his expertise to the rendering of the serpents, giving them a sense of movement and unsettling vitality. The detailed execution of the painting, from the gleaming, slimy texture of the snakes to the coagulating blood pooling beneath Medusa’s severed head, enhances its dramatic impact, making it a striking example of Baroque theatricality. At the time, viewers interpreted this depiction as an allegory for the triumph of Stoic reason over the enemies of virtue, symbolising the power of rationality to overcome base instincts and chaos.