Nike of Samothrace

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Front view
Three-quarter view
Side view

The Nike of Samothrace is a Greek sculpture depicting the goddess of victory Nike and is now in the Louvre in Paris . It was found in the sanctuary of the Kabiren on the Greek island of Samothrace . It was probably made around 190 BC. It is believed that Rhodian sculptors created the statue.

The French Vice Consul in the Ottoman Empire , Charles Champoiseau, found the fragments of the Nike statue in 1863, which were assembled on site and brought to Paris. An Austrian excavation in 1873 unearthed further fragments, including two fingers. The French discovered the base in 1879, the right palm was found in 1950. The search for head and arms was unsuccessful.

The goddess is in a landing position; it is slightly bent forward with open arms or wings. The wings are filled with air and pushed backwards, similar to the thin, fluttering robe that only disappears slightly directly on the body because it is pressed against the stomach. Your stomach appears bare this way. She shifts her weight slightly forward onto her right leg, but is generally upright.

The statue was probably used as a victory monument, as a thank you for the sea victory over Antiochus III. of Syria. That is why she stands like a figurehead on the bow of a ship. According to Philippe Bruneau, the entire statue is 328 cm high, while the figure itself is 245 cm tall.

The base was made from gray marble from the island of Rhodes , the statue itself from white Parian marble from the island of Paros . The statue can be visited in the Louvre in Paris, where there is a reconstruction of the right hand with fingers from Vienna. A copy in original size is on display in the museum in Paleopolis on Samothrace, there is also the palm of the hand found in 1950. Further copies in original size are in the atrium of the Technical University of Berlin and in the atrium of the University building in Zurich .

The Nike of Samothrace symbolically brings both victory and peace. The statue had a major impact on the historicism of the late 19th century. Numerous replicas of the statue were made, for example the Victoria on the Berlin Victory Column .

A free replica of the Nike, assembled for the first time in 1977–1979 , has been on the roof of the Linz Art University since 2016 . It originally found its place on the roof of the bridgehead building (West, Hauptplatz 8) of the Linz Art University.

literature

  • Andrew Stewart : The Nike of Samothrace: Another View. In: American Journal of Archeology . Volume 120, 2016, pp. 399-410 ( online ).
  • Marianne Hamiaux, Ludovic Laugier, Jean-Luc Martinez (eds.): The winged Victory of Samothrace: Rediscovering a Masterpiece. Musee du Louvre, Paris 2015.
  • Johannes Christian Bernhardt: The Nikemonument of Samothrace and the battle of images. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2014.

Web links

Commons : Nike of Samothrace  - Collection of images, videos and audio files