2022 - Guanajuato, Mexico - 5 - Door Knocker
Explore, 06 February, 2023.
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The first Door Knocker spotted in Centro Guanajuato.
This is a Medusa Door Knocker.
In Greek mythology, Medusa was a horrible monster, which would turn anyone looking her in the face into stone. The hero Perseus eventually beheaded her by avoiding her gaze and looking at her mirror image on his shield.
Long ago in Greece, people liked to decorate buildings with frightful pictures of Medusa in order to scare away enemies and evil spirits.
Centuries later, a French sculptor named Emile-Antoine Bourdelle used the same Greek myth for a different purpose. Instead of creating an ornament for a wall, the artist created a bronze sculpture in the form of an extra-large door knocker.
Instead of making Medusa look like an ugly monster, he gave her a beautiful face and sinuous braids that turn into wriggling snakes in Perseus’s hand.
Below Medusa’s chin, two braids extend from ear to ear, forming the door knocker’s handle. By lifting Medusa’s hair with the handle, visitors could rap sharply on the door, announcing their arrival.
2022 - Guanajuato, Mexico - 5 - Door Knocker
Explore, 06 February, 2023.
.
The first Door Knocker spotted in Centro Guanajuato.
This is a Medusa Door Knocker.
In Greek mythology, Medusa was a horrible monster, which would turn anyone looking her in the face into stone. The hero Perseus eventually beheaded her by avoiding her gaze and looking at her mirror image on his shield.
Long ago in Greece, people liked to decorate buildings with frightful pictures of Medusa in order to scare away enemies and evil spirits.
Centuries later, a French sculptor named Emile-Antoine Bourdelle used the same Greek myth for a different purpose. Instead of creating an ornament for a wall, the artist created a bronze sculpture in the form of an extra-large door knocker.
Instead of making Medusa look like an ugly monster, he gave her a beautiful face and sinuous braids that turn into wriggling snakes in Perseus’s hand.
Below Medusa’s chin, two braids extend from ear to ear, forming the door knocker’s handle. By lifting Medusa’s hair with the handle, visitors could rap sharply on the door, announcing their arrival.