Winged Victory Of Samothrace Analysis

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, created circa 190 BC, is now located at the Louvre in Paris, and it’s current home following a long and illustrious journey. During World War II, this work, amongst others was protected from Nazi theft by being moved around various chateaus in France, a project that started in the late 1930s (Nancy Cunard, The Triumph of the Treasures of France). However, Charles Champoiseau, a French consul, initially found The Winged Victory of Samothrace in 1863 at Samothrace, buried in the ground in pieces next to the remains of a The Samothracian Sanctuary of the Great Gods (Charles C. Perkins, The Winged Victory of Samothrake). Champoiseau returned in 1878 to find the statues pedestal, however a number of the pieces have

Female nudes were uncommon in classic artwork. This is a reflection of women’s role in society. There’s much evidence that the desire to cover women’s body’s extended to veils much like today’s modern veils seen in Iran known as the chador (Llewellyn-Jones). Veiling women and forcing them to remain hidden from those outside of their family unit, implies that they had a limited role in society at this time. The veil acts as a physical means of separation between women and the rest of society. However this is a notion that was likely limited to the upper classes of societies, lower classes, in particular prostitutes, though not depicted nude in statue, were likely exposed in a more public setting during this period. During the Hellenistic period this concept shifted, with an increase in depictions of women including goddesses Hera and Aphrodite (Shipley, 105). This is exemplified The Aphrodite of Knidos and The Winged Victory of Samothrace, showing the growing acceptance of the female form and a more gender-neutral standard of beauty. The increasing focus on feminine beauty in such pieces was an aspect of the new Baroque style of the period, which used elements such as eroticism as depicted through the detailed, thin draped cloth on the sculpture belted to accentuate the goddesses figure. This was meant as a means of

Many of the Baroque sculptures were commissioned victory monuments, such as the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The key purpose of Baroque was psychaogogia, “swaying of the soul”, which this piece attempts to do in multiple ways such as the movement emphasized by the drapery and positioning of the body. Also, the ship was created at a much smaller scale than the statue to create a sense of grandeur by making the body appear much larger proportionately (Bugh). In many ways this piece also captures other Baroque elements such as eroticism through the thin draping and emphasis on the female form. This is expresses how art, like society was growing in acceptance towards the female form and began including women in the artistic expression of beauty. Although quite dramatic in many ways, this piece still has hints of realism by showing the true aspects of the human form and emotions rather than simply the ideal. This contributes to the notion regarding the growing sense of individuality during this period not only in artistic expression but also in society such as a more personalized view of religion. Although still based upon the Greek ideals, this shows that there is attention