Victoria of Calvatone

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Drawing of Victoria by Calvatone

Victoria von Calvatone is the name for a gilded bronze statue from the Roman Empire . It is kept in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg .

Description and inscription

It is a 1.70 m high statue of a slim female figure made of thinly cast bronze. Depicted is the winged Roman goddess of victory Victoria , who stands on a globe and is in a dancing, almost floating movement in the style of Hellenistic maenad figures . She wears a chiton and has comparatively long legs, the left of which is placed forward and protrudes from the clothing. A panther skin is tied to the left shoulder and fastened with a belt strap at hip height . The figure's right arm is stretched out forwards - it is unknown whether it originally held a wreath in its hand - while the left arm is holding a palm branch (although it has been modernized). The head of the statue, on the other hand, is based on models from the classical period (5th century BC) and looks slightly to the right. The hair is held in place by a bandage that is placed twice around the head and tied back over the forehead.

On the globe is the inscription "Victoriae Aug (ustorum) / Antonini et Veri / M (arcus) Satrius Maior" (translation with additions in brackets: "The victoriousness [ Victoria ] of the emperor (Marcus Aurelius) Antoninus and (Lucius Aurelius) Verus, (donated by) Marcus Satrius Maior “). According to this information, the work of art was created during the joint reign of Emperors Mark Aurel and Lucius Verus , i.e. in the years between 161 and 169. It symbolizes the victoriousness and claim to power of these two rulers and probably refers to the successful Parthian War of Lucius Verus , which lasted from 161 to 166. An otherwise unknown Marcus Satrius Maior appears as the founder of the work of art; his name is documented several times for ancient northern Italy .

Finding, completing and storing

In 1836 the staue was found in four parts at Calvatone near Cremona, Italy . In February farm workers first found the head while working on Luigi Alovisi's estate. Alovisi urged her to look for more parts, and on March 14th, the body, globe, and right arm came to light. The broken pieces could easily be put back together again; the remaining, lost parts were supplemented by German restorers at an unknown later date. These modern additions are in detail: the left arm from the shoulder including the palm branch , the left leg (with the exception of a piece of the thigh and the big toe), the tip of the nose, part of the left cheek, one of the tufts of hair, the wings and the knots of the garment on the shoulders. The tail of the panther skin is broken off. The gilding was still in good condition when it was found and was also added to the areas that were subsequently added.

Gustav Friedrich Waagen , then director of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie , acquired the Victoria von Calvatone in December 1841 for 12,000 Austrian lire for the Royal Museum in Berlin , where it could be seen until the museum was closed due to the war in 1939. During this time, various copies were made, which came to Berlin, Rome, Cremona and Moscow, among others. After 1941, to protect against air raids, the original was relocated with the other inventory of the Antikenmuseum to the safes of the not yet fully completed New Reichsmünze (today: "Alte Münze") on Molkenmarkt and stored there in field 23. Since the end of the Second World War, the Victoria of Calvatone was considered lost. As it later turned out, however, a Russian expert on ancient art selected it for transport to Russia in 1946. Once there, however, it was wrongly assigned to the department for French sculpture of the 17th century and stored in a special depot at the Hermitage . As part of museum history research and conservation analyzes by Russian specialists, the object was identified and correctly assigned again. In 2016 it was published by the Russian scientists that they were “relocated due to the war” from the Berlin museums. Thereupon the President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation , Hermann Parzinger , and the General Director of the Hermitage, Michail Piotrowskij , agreed to jointly work on the sculpture scientifically and to restore it in view of the poor condition caused by storage during the war.

Web links

literature

  • Alexander Conze : Royal Museums in Berlin: Description of the ancient sculptures excluding the Pergamene finds. W. Spemann, Berlin 1891, p. 7, no. 5 ( online , with drawing).
  • Federica Giacobello: Origine e diffusione dell'immagine della Vittoria su globo. La Vittoria di Calvatone, un capolavoro dell'arte romana ritrovato e perduto. In: Archivio storico lombardo. Series 12, Volume 10 (= Volume 130), 2004, pp. 353-368.
  • Renzo Lambertini: Satrio della Vittoria (a proposito di CIL V. 4089). In: Minima Epigraphica et Papyrologica. Volume VII – VIII (= fascicle 9–10), 2004–2005, pp. 315–328.
  • Documentation of losses. Volume V.1: Collection of antiquities: sculptures, vases, ivory and bones, gold jewelry, gems and cameos. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 2005, p. 36 (illustration) and p. 39 (catalog entry).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Conze: Royal Museums in Berlin: Description of the ancient sculptures excluding the Pergamene finds. W. Spemann, Berlin 1891, p. 7, no. 5.
  2. ↑ For the interpretation of Victoria as a maenad and the interpretation of the fur, see Tonio Hölscher : Victoria Romana. Archaeological studies on the history and nature of the Roman goddess of victory from the beginnings to the end of the 3rd century. AD Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1967, p. 36 f.
  3. ↑ a b Description and listing of the modern additions: Alexander Conze: Königliche Museen zu Berlin: Description of the ancient sculptures excluding the Pergamene finds. W. Spemann, Berlin 1891, p. 7, no. 5 ( online ).
  4. ↑ CIL V, 4089
  5. ↑ a b c Calvatone Victory rediscovered at the Hermitage. The History Blog of December 28, 2016, accessed February 12, 2017.
  6. ↑ Documentation of the losses. Volume V.1: Collection of antiquities: sculptures, vases, ivory and bones, gold jewelry, gems and cameos. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 2005, p. 39.
  7. ↑ AV Vilenskaya TO Aponasenko: Releases the State Hermitage. Volume LXXIV, 2016, pp. 106-113.
  8. ↑ Believed to be lost, Victoria was rediscovered by Calvatone from the Berlin Collection of Antiquities in St. Petersburg. Press release of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation of December 28, 2016, accessed on February 12, 2017.