1. INTRODUCTION
According to Pollitt (1986:1) there are five states of mind that are characteristic of the Hellenistic Age: “an obsession with fortune, a theatrical mentality, a scholarly mentality, individualism, and a cosmopolitan outlook”. With this in mind, I will discuss the characteristics of the Hellenistic movement in this essay as exemplified in the The Winged Victory of Samothrace (Figure 1).
2. THE WINGED VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE
Figure 1: Pythokritos of Lindos. Winged Victory of Samothrace, 200-190 BC (Hamiaux & Marmois 2008).
As shown in figure 1 the Winged Victory of Samothrace was created during the Hellenistic baroque period which took place from 200 -190 BCE (Hamiaux & Marmois 2008). According to Hamiaux and Marmois (2008) the Hellenistic period was ridden with numerous naval battles between the kingdoms inherited by the successors of Alexander the Great as they fought for control of the Aegean Sea. Thus, battle fleets were a vital military resource which inspired many great artworks like the Winged Victory of Samothrace (Figure 1). The Greek world underwent great political changes and developments after the death of Alexander which
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Victory was an extremely decorative figure who appeared widely in Greek art and she can be found in a multiplicity of forms – statues, reliefs, vessels, coins, and terracotta or bronze figurines (Hamiaux & Marmois 2008). The missing right arm of the goddess was supposedly raised high to crown a naval victor (Kleiner 2005:150). According to Bénédicte [Sa] it has been suggested that this specific monument was dedicated by the Rhodians in honor of their victory at the battle of Myonnisos, but it could also be for the battle of Side in 190 BC against the fleet of Antiochus III of Syria ( Figure