Versace's Medusa: (capita)lizing upon classical antiquity.(Gianni Versace)(fashion designer)(Critical essay)(Biography)

Serious analysis by scholars of the work of the Italian designer Gianni Versace (1946-1997) has been growing in recent years. In 1997, just after Versace was shot dead on July 15 in front of his home in Miami, Florida, by Andrew Cunanan, a young gay man conflicted by emotions of love and hate, the archaeologist Vinnie Norskov published a study of two South Italian vases from Versace's personal collection. (1) In the same year the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art assembled an exhibition of Versace's work. (2) In 1998 a master's thesis focused on Versace's…