The article’s aim is to analyse three paintings (those of Pierre, de Vanloo and Delacroix) and a drawing attributed to Poussin, all of which have Medea as their subject. Critiques (written by La Font de Saint-Yenne, Diderot and Gautier) and Bellori’s description of these pictures are also examined. By the analysis, the article’s goal is to shed light on the shifts in the pictorial conception of Medea as a subject, as well as to reveal them in their literary reception in the 17th and 18th centuries. The article seeks to answer – among others – the following questions: what are the criteria that the critics of the Salons insist on? To what extent do they relate to the exhibited image? Or do they rather serve as illustrations for the artistic principles valued by the critics?