Louvre Musée, THE VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE
Denon 1er étage hellenistique
THE VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE
The winged goddess of victory standing on the prow of a ship, overlooked the Sanctuary of Great Gods on the island of Samothrace.
This monument was provably an ex-voto offered by the people of Rhodes in commemoration of a naval victory in the early second century BC (around 190 BC).
The exceptional monument was discovered in 1863, on the small island of Samothrace in the northwest Aegean sea, Greece Asia Minor or Rhodes, by Charles Champosieau, French vice-consul to Adrianopole (Turkey). It was sent to Paris the same year and since 1884 has dominated the Daru staircase, while a plaster replica stands in the museum at the original location of the Sanctuary of Great Gods on Samothrace.
The victory is one of the great surviving masterpieces of sculpture from the Hellensitic period.
Hellensitic Period: It was established by the German historian Johan Gustav Droysen to refer to the spreading of Greek culture over the non – Greek peoples that were conquered by Alexander the Great.
According to Droysen, the Hellensitic civilisation was a fusion of Greek and Near Eastern Cultures.
The main cultural centres expanded from Mainland Greece to Pergamon, Rhodes, Antioch and Alexandria.
The death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC is seen as the beginning of the Hellenistic period, and the end of it in the year 31 BC, when Egypt was annexed to Rome by Octavian, and Cleopatra committed suicide.
During the Hellenistic period, there were two artistical currents:
1) School of Pelgamon: It sticked to the REALISM
2) School of Rhodes, that extends the classicism.
This sculpture belongs to the school of Rhode.
· The statue stands on a pedestal representing the prow of a ship, and figures the goddess as she descended from the skies to the triumphant fleet.
· The prow was reconstructed from grey marble at the site by Champosieau in 1879 and assembled in situ before being shipped to Paris.
· The goddess has been sculpted in white Parian marble.
· The statue is significantly damaged, missing its head and arms, it has been reassembled in stages since its original discovery in 1863
· Nike’s right arm was raised, either to bring a trumpet to her lips as she is depicted on coins, or to crown the naval victor.
· The right wing is a symmetric plaster version of the left one.
· The figure creates a spiralling effect in a composition that opens out in various directions.
· This is achieved by the oblique angels of the wings and placement of the left leg.
· The nude female body is revealed by the transparency of the wet drapery, much in the manner of the classical works from the 5th century BC.
· The cord worn just beneath the breast recalls a clothing style that was popular at the beginning of the 4th century BC
· The decorative richness, sense of volume and intensity of movement are characteristic of a Rhodian style.
· The cannons of perfect beauty
1) In the classical period, the size of the body was established reproducing 7 times the size of the head.
2) In the Hellensitic period, it is 8 to 9 times.
The victory is one of the Louvre’s greatest treasures, and it is today displayed at the head of the sweeping Daru staircase (named after a minister of Napoleon III) to give it its original position on the Rhode island.