Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia. Her mother considered her more beautiful than the Nereids, a fact that angered Poseidon, god of the sea, who summoned a sea monster that devastated the entire country. The oracle of Ammon demanded that Andromeda be tied to a rock by the sea. Just as she was about to be devoured, Perseus killed the monster and managed to save her. The photograph depicts Perseus’s liberation of Andromeda; it is a Roman-era mural painting from the House of the Dioscuri in Pompeii.

The painting imitates an original by the Athenian painter Nicias (4th century BC). It is currently housed in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. This mythological scene has been depicted by many artists throughout history, perhaps the best known being the famous painting by Rubens, housed in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.