Andromeda aan de rots geketend. NL-HlmNHA 1477 53010793

Andromeda is shown nude and chained to a jagged rock in the center of the composition, awaiting her fate. In the upper right, Perseus flies through the air on the winged horse Pegasus, preparing to strike the sea monster emerging from the waves. A large crowd of onlookers, including Andromeda’s distraught parents in ornate Eastern-style dress, watches the rescue from the shoreline on the left.

During the Renaissance, the myth of Andromeda was frequently interpreted through a Neoplatonic lens as an allegory for the human soul (Andromeda) being liberated from the bondage of the material world and the passions (the sea monster) by divine reason or the Logos (Perseus). Hendrick Goltzius was a central figure in the Haarlem Mannerist circle, which utilized complex mythological imagery to convey deep philosophical and moralizing themes common in the intellectual atmosphere of the late 16th century.