At the time, Louvre researchers sought to recreate what the original may have looked like but were unable to model arms that matched the grace of the rest of the sculpture. Paula Wasley is a senior special affairs specialist at the National Endowment for the Humanities. Skip to main content. The National Endowment for the Humanities. Given the cost to ship the marble from Rhodes, it was likely specially ordered and intended to make a statement, connecting it to the Rhodians.
Tetradrachm coin showing Nike blowing a trumped, — B. The form of a naval victory monument featuring a carved marble ship appears to be a popular type in the Hellenistic period, and parallels for the Nike of Samothrace are widespread—they have been found in mainland Greece, the Aegean islands, and Cyrene in Libya. The closest parallel appeared on coins minted by Demetrius Poliorcetes of Macedonia at the end of the third century B.
The coins depict Nike on the prow of a ship, blowing a horn to announce a victory. The Nike of Samothrace , while originally located in a sanctuary on a small island in the north Aegean, was intrinsically part of a Hellenistic world defined by the transmission of ideas, goods, people, and artistic motifs over large distances.
Today, it is admired by an international audience in the Louvre, and its original intention was similar. The Sanctuary of the Great Gods, promising protection at sea to its initiates, was visited by worshippers from across the Mediterranean.
Nike of Samothrace and the Daru Staircase on the Louvre website. Nike of Samothrace on the American Excavations at Samothrace website. Kevin Clinton, et al. Ira S. Edited by Olga Palagia and Bonna D.
Wescoat Oxford: Oxbow Books, , pp. Bonna D. Wescoat, et al. More Smarthistory images…. Sign up for our newsletter! Receive occasional emails about new Smarthistory content. From a 3D reconstruction of the ruins at Samothrace, Greece.
Cite this page as: Dr. Champoiseau heard about this discovery in , and set about having the blocks from the prow sent to Paris, along with the slabs from the pedestal beneath. The first attempt to put the two parts together in the courtyard of the Louvre proved they were on the right track.
The main features of this were as follows: the right side of the marble torso was placed in position on the body, the left side and the belt were recreated in plaster. The left wing was put together from several marble fragments and strengthened at the back by a metal frame before being put in place.
As only two fragments of the right wing survived, it was replaced by a mirror-image cast of the left wing. Only the head, arms, and feet were not remodeled. The statue was placed directly on the ship, whose blocks were shaped and the gaps filled. Neither the ornamentation on the prow nor the rams were recreated. The restoration work was completed in The monument was placed at the top of the recently completed Daru staircase, creating a spectacular visual effect.
To heighten the visual impact yet further, a modern block was added between the statue and its base during renovations in Drawing of the lower course blocks by the architect A.
Drawing of the oar box blocks by the architect A. First attempt at assembly in a courtyard at the Louvre Archives, private coll. The sanctuary Click on the arrow to launch the audio. The sanctuary of Samothrace, famed throughout Antiquity, consisted of a cluster of buildings dedicated to the worship of the Great Gods and ceremonial Mysteries. Hordes of pilgrims, many from Greek cities in Asia Minor, came to be initiated into these mysterious rites.
In the fourth century BC, the kings of Macedonia oversaw a program to enlarge and improve the religious buildings, which came to take up all the ground space in the heart of the sanctuary.
The sanctuary thus had to be extended, and work began on the heights overlooking the site. A monumental entrance was built to the east.
The top of the hill to the west was flattened to form a terrace and a long portico was built, surrounded by buildings and offerings dedicated by wealthy pilgrims. At the southern tip of the terrace, the side of the hill was hollowed out to house the statue of Victory, in the highest and most remote part of the shrine.
The monument stood in a small building, of which only the foundations remain, protected by recently restored retaining walls but partly hidden under rocks from landslides. The building had three walls, opening at the front onto the terrace with its portico. From the evidence of the foundations, the Victory was placed not perpendicular to the back wall of the building, but at a slight angle. Visitors arriving from the portico thus had a three-quarters left view of the monument. The monumental Victory was just one of the countless offerings made at the sanctuary.
The Great Gods of Samothrace were invoked by initiates for protection in situations of danger, for example the threat of shipwreck or battle. A stele in Larissa , Thessaly , dedicated to the Theoi Megaloi or Great Gods, depicts them as horsemen galloping across the heavens like the Dioscuri , accompanying a winged Victory bearing a wreath.
She is bringing it for the man who dedicated the stele, shown at the bottom with his wife preparing a banquet in honor of the gods. So an offering representing a Victory on the prow of a battleship is perfectly suited to the site. It was doubtless consecrated in thanks to the gods after a victorious naval battle. Unfortunately, the excavations have not uncovered the dedicatory inscription, which would tell us the circumstances whereby the monument was built, the name of the donor, and maybe even the identity of the sculptor.
Provenance and dating Click on the arrow to launch the audio. No statues produced anywhere throughout the Greek world during the Hellenistic period bear comparison with the Victory of Samothrace.
Only the drapery effects on the goddesses in the Parthenon pediments are comparable, as if, two and a half centuries later, the sculptor wanted to test his skill against the great masters of Attic sculpture from the fifth century BC. One thing we do know is that the technique of sculpting the body in several blocks prior to assembly was used above all in the workshops of Asia Minor, the Dodecanese, and the Cyclades. Some experts have thus concluded that the statue as a whole was made in Rhodes and that the work was an offering by the people of Rhodes to the sanctuary in Samothrace.
The Winged Victory of Samothrace was placed in her new home on the upper landing in , some 20 years after the statue was discovered. The domes above were decked out in heavily gilded mosaics. The famous statue of Victory bears the name of the Greek island of Samothrace — located in the Aegean Sea — where she was discovered in by Charles Champoiseau.
What a find! The statue is breathtaking, but broken and incomplete. Some fragments were unearthed, but there was no sign of her head or her arms. Charles Champoiseau went back to Samothrace in to look for them, but in vain. This second dig yielded the plinth and the prow of the ship that served as a base for the statue.
The wings, only partially retrieved, were restored with plaster to fill in the blanks so that Victory could get back her original looks. The statue has been restored several times and has been changing form ever since she was found! The statue, made of marble from Paros one of the finest marbles of Greece , represents the goddess of Victory about to alight on a ship whose sailors have just won a sea battle.
It probably dates to BC and was commissioned to celebrate that victory.
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