Medusa was carved in 2024 by Julia Gogol from a single piece of natural topaz. The finished sculpture weighs 2,270 carats and glows in golden cognac and warm peach tones. The face emerges from the heart of the stone beneath a crown of serpents, their bodies twisting through light and shadow; turned around, the piece shows a female profile held within a monumental eye. Topaz is doubly refractive, and Gogol works with that optical character to deepen the sense of depth, so that the image shifts as the stone is seen from different angles.
In myth, Medusa's gaze turned those who looked at her to stone. Here the legend is reversed: Medusa has become the stone, and the stone looks back. With every movement the light changes the carving, and beauty and danger, femininity and power, mythology and geology meet in a gemstone formed millions of years before human hands touched it.
Materials: natural topaz
Weight: 2,270 ct
Year: 2024
Artist: Julia Gogol
Part of the Gems & Carvings Collection.
Medusa was carved in 2024 by Julia Gogol from a single piece of natural topaz. The finished sculpture weighs 2,270 carats and glows in golden cognac and warm peach tones. The face emerges from the heart of the stone beneath a crown of serpents, their bodies twisting through light and shadow; turned around, the piece shows a female profile held within a monumental eye. Topaz is doubly refractive, and Gogol works with that optical character to deepen the sense of depth, so that the image shifts as the stone is seen from different angles.
In myth, Medusa's gaze turned those who looked at her to stone. Here the legend is reversed: Medusa has become the stone, and the stone looks back. With every movement the light changes the carving, and beauty and danger, femininity and power, mythology and geology meet in a gemstone formed millions of years before human hands touched it.
Materials: natural topaz
Weight: 2,270 ct
Year: 2024
Artist: Julia Gogol
Part of the Gems & Carvings Collection.
