Editing Winged Victory of Samothrace (section)

==Description==

===The statue===
[[File:Victoire_de_Samothrace_-_vue_de_trois-quart_gauche%2C_gros_plan_de_la_statue_(2).JPG|2015 view|thumb|right]]

The statue, in white Parian marble, depicts a winged woman, the goddess of Victory ([[Nike (mythology)|Niké]]), alighting on the bow of a warship.

The Nike is dressed in a long tunic ({{lang|grc|χιτών}}, {{lang|grc-Latn|[[Chiton (garment)|chitôn]]}}) in a very fine fabric, with a folded flap and belted under the chest. It was attached to the shoulders by two thin straps (the restoration is not accurate). The lower body is partially covered by a thick mantle ({{lang|la|ἱμάτιον}}, {{lang|grc-Latn|[[himation]]}}) rolled up at the waist and untied when uncovering the entire left leg; one end slides between the legs to the ground, and the other, much shorter, flies freely in the back. The mantle is falling, and only the force of the wind holds it on her right leg. The sculptor has multiplied the effects of draperies, between places where the fabric is plated against the body by revealing its shapes, especially on the belly, and those where it accumulates in folds deeply hollowed out casting a strong shadow, as between the legs. This extreme virtuosity concerns the left side and front of the statue. On the right side, the layout of the drapery is reduced to the main lines of the clothes, in a much less elaborate work.<ref>Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, pp. 144–148, fig. 118–127</ref>

The goddess advances, leaning on her right leg. The two feet that were bare have not been found. The right touched the ground, the heel still slightly raised; the left foot, the leg strongly stretched back, was still carried in the air. The goddess is not walking, she is finishing her flight, her large wings still spread out backwards. The arms were also not found, but the right shoulder raised indicates that the right arm was raised to the side. With her elbow bent, the goddess made  a victorious gesture of salvation with her hand: this hand with outstretched fingers held nothing (neither trumpet nor crown). There is no clue to reconstructing the position of the left arm, probably lowered, very slightly bent; the goddess may have held a ''stylis'' (a naval standard)<ref>J. N. Svoronos, {{lang|fr|italic=no|"Stylides, ancres hierae, aphlasta, stoloi, ackrostolia, embola, proembola et totems marins"}}, {{lang|fr|Journal international d'archéologie numismatique}}, 16, 1914, pp. 81–152.</ref> on this side, a kind of mast taken as a trophy on the enemy ship, as seen on coins. The statue is designed to be seen three quarters left (right for the spectator), from where the lines of the composition are very clear: a vertical from the neck to the right foot, and an oblique starting from the neck diagonally along the left leg. "The whole body is inscribed in a rectangular triangle, a simple but very solid geometric figure: it was necessary to support both the fulfilled shapes of the goddess, the accumulation of draperies, and the energy of movement".<ref>Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, pp. 148–154, fig. 125–133</ref> Most recently the [[Alula]] feather was restored to the left wing in a flared position, as it would be for a bird landing.<ref>B. Westcoat, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXeVszT3dcA ''From the Vantage of the Victory New Research on the Nike of Samothrace''], National Humanities Center, 2015, accessed 22 November 2021. However, the wing cannot be identified with any particular breed of bird and seem to be a pure invention.</ref>

The art historian [[H. W. Janson]] has pointed out<ref>Janson, H. W. (1995). ''History of Art''. 5th ed. Revised and expanded by Anthony F. Janson. London: Thames & Hudson, pp. 157–158.</ref> that unlike earlier Greek or Near Eastern sculptures, the Nike creates a deliberate relationship to the imaginary space around the goddess. The wind that has carried her and which she is fighting off, straining to keep steady – as mentioned the original mounting had her standing on a ship's prow, just having landed – is the invisible complement of the figure and the viewer is made to imagine it. At the same time, this expanded space heightens the symbolic force of the work; the wind and the sea are suggested as metaphors of struggle, destiny and divine help or grace. This kind of interplay between a statue and the space conjured up would become a common device in baroque and romantic art, about two thousand years later. It is present in Michelangelo's sculpture of David: David's gaze and pose show where he is seeing his adversary Goliath and his awareness of the moment – but it is rare in ancient art.

===The boat and the base===
[[Image:Victoire de Samothrace - vue de gauche, détail de la proue.JPG|thumb|upright=1.4|The base in the form of a ship's prow.]]

These are carved from grey marble veined with white, identified as that of the quarries of [[Lartos, Rhodes|Lartos]], in Rhodes. The base has the shape of the bow of a Greek Hellenistic warship: long and narrow, it is covered at the front by a combat deck on which the statue is located. It has reinforced, projecting oar boxes on the sides that supported two rows of staggered oars (the oval oar slots are also depicted). The keel is rounded. At the bottom of the bow, at the waterline, a large triple-pronged spur would have been sculpted, and a little higher up, a smaller two-bladed ram that would have been used to smash the hull of the enemy ship would have been shown. The top of the bow was crowned by a high and curved bow ornament (the {{lang|grc-Latn|acrostolion}}). These missing elements have not been reconstructed, which greatly reduces the vessel's warlike appearance.<ref>Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, p. 154–159, fig. 134–142</ref>

Epigraphist [[Christian Blinkenberg]]<ref>C. Blinkenberg 1938, {{lang|fr|italic=no|"Trihemiolia. Étude sur un type de navire rhodien"}}, ''Lindiaka'' VII, pp. 1–59</ref> thought that this bow was that of a {{lang|grc-Latn|[[Hellenistic-era warships|trihēmiolia]]}}, a type of warship often named in Rhodes inscriptions: the island's shipyards were renowned, and its war fleet important. But specialists in ancient naval architecture do not agree on the ascription of the trihemolia.<ref>L. Basch, {{lang|la|Le musée imaginaire de la marine antique}}, 1986, pp. 354–362, fig. 747–758; J. S. Morrison, J. F. Coates, ''Greek and Roman Oared Warships'', 1996, pp. 219-220, no. 20, and pp. 266–267, 319–321, fig. 74</ref> It can only be said that the Samothrace bow has boxes of oars and two benches of superimposed oars. Each oar being operated by several rowers, this can also be suitable for a quadrireme (4 files of rowers) or a quinquereme (5 files of rowers). These ships were widespread in all Hellenistic war fleets, including the Rhodian fleet.<ref>Hamiaux 2006, p. 54–55</ref>

===Dimensions and construction of the set===
[[Image:Schéma de la Victoire de Samothrace.jpg|thumb|left|Construction of the assembled monument, (drawing V. Foret).]]

*Total height: 5.57&nbsp;m
*Statue height: 2.75&nbsp;m with wings; 2.40&nbsp;m body without head
*Ship height: 2.01&nbsp;m; length: 4.29&nbsp;m; width max.: 2.48&nbsp;m
*Base height: 0.36&nbsp;m; length: 4.76&nbsp;m; width: 1.76&nbsp;m

The Victory statue, about 1.6 times life size, is not cut from a single block of marble, but composed of six blocks worked separately: the body, the bust with the head, the two arms and the two wings. These blocks were assembled together by metal braces (bronze or iron). This technique, used for a long time by Greek sculptors for the protruding parts of statues, was used in Hellenistic times for the body itself, thus making it possible to use smaller pieces of marble, therefore less rare and less expensive. In the case of Victory, the sculptor optimized this technique by tilting the joint surfaces that connect the wings to the body by 20° forward, which ensured their cantilevered support in the back.<ref>Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, pp. 158–159, fig. 143</ref> To the body-block were added smaller projecting pieces:<ref>Hamiaux 2004, pp. 80–85, fig. 26–35; Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, p. 134, fig. 123, 124, 132, 133</ref> the end of the flying mantle at the back and the end of the fold falling to the ground in front of the left leg have been reattached; the right foot, the back of the left leg with the foot and a drapery fold in front of the legs are lost.

The ship is composed of 16 blocks divided into three increasingly wide assizes aft, placed on a rectangular base. The seventeenth block, which remained in Samothrace, completed the void at the back of the upper assembly, just under the statue. Its weight allowed the cantilever of the blocks of the protruding oar boxes to hold on the sides.<ref>Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, pp. 159, 160, fig. 144–145</ref> The baseboard of the statue was embedded in a basin dug on this block. Its contours, fully visible during the 2014 restoration, made it possible to determine the location of the statue very precisely.<ref>Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, p. 123, fig. 116–117</ref>

The statue and base are inseparable to ensure the balance of the monument, designed as a whole.