The Victoire de Samothrace (in Greek old Νίκη της Σαμοθράκης / Níkê tês Samothrákês ) is a Greek Sculpture representing the goddess Athéna Nike (“Athéna who brings the victory”). It is currently preserved at the Musée of Louvre.

Discovered

The statue is discovered of pieces the April 15th 1863, on the island of Samothrace, by Charles Champoiseau, vice-consul of France by interim with Andrinople, during a mission of exploration. The bust and the body make it possible Champoiseau to identify a representation of Nike, the Victoire, traditionally represented like a winged woman. The pieces are sent to the Musée of Louvre.

In 1875, an Austrian archaeological mission excavates the site again. One then identifies the large blocks of gray marble found in the vicinity like the prow of as a basis ship being used for the statue, representation which finds on tétradrachmes of Démétrios Poliorcète struck following its victory over Ptolémée I {{er}} with Salamine of Cyprus, in 306 av. J. - C. the statue is then restored according to this model, i.e. with a trumpet with the hand. However, the discovery in 1950 per Jean Charbonneaux of a right hand contradicted this theory: largely opened and the tended fingers, the hand does not hold of attribute.

The statements also make it possible to show that the monument was laid out obliquely in a rectangular exèdre located at the extemity of a terrace with hillside which overhangs the theater of the sanctuary of the Large Gods. The normal sight of the statue is thus its left three-quarter, as the important disparity of completion between the two sides of the statue attests it - that of the right-sided is very rudimentary. On these bases, and using some mouldings (right wing, left center, back of the bust), a complete reconstitution is carried out at Louvre in 1884. The statue is placed on the upper floor of the Daru staircase, where it is always.

The unit

The Victoire

The statue is out of white marble, probably originating in Paros. She represents a winged woman, allegory of the Victoire, vêtue of a chiton with reduction girdled under the chest, out of very fine fabric, letting appear the curves of the body; partially covered with a himation (coat) rolled up on the size and discovering the left leg. The wind plates clothing against the body and inflates the chiton with the back: the Victoire is represented being posed on the bridge of the ship. In the restitution most commonly accepted, it raises the right-hand man, to undoubtedly announce the victory, while its other arm is brought back along the body. Perhaps it held a trophy, like the stylis (pole postpones) of an enemy boat.

The Victoire is made up of six separately worked blocks of marble: the body, the bust, two arms and two wings. This easy way, largely used by the Greek sculptors, makes it possible to save material expenses: it is easier to extract from small large blocks than only one. However the Victoire measures 2,38  m in height - 3,28  m wings included/understood - is approximately 1,5  time the natural height. The blocks are assembled between them by bronze pins.

The boat and the base

The ship represented is typically rhodien: it is about one τριηρημιολία / triêrêmiolía , a small long man-of-war, without bridge, with two rows and half of oars, of the side spurs and with front, a higher spur, a lower spur and a bent prow. In its actual position, it misses with the ship the two spurs before and the bent ornament of the stem, which modifies the general pace of the unit.

The boat and the base are out of marble of Lartos, veined gray of white, origin rhodienne. The base itself consists of six flagstones on which three rows of blocks pile up - in all, fifteen and the fragments of one sixteenth -, maintained interdependent by pins, appearing the ship. The second rank is duplicated to represent the cases of oars. The statue was posed on the higher row.

Dating and attribution

We do not have any ancient testimony on the statue. This one can thus be dated only according to its style. It was initially considered that the monnaires of Démétrios Poliorcète represented the monument itself; the king would have built it in commemoration of his naval victory. At this stage, the statue is allotted to a sculptor of the end of or beginning of third century BC, for example a pupil of Scopas, which worked in Samothrace. However, Samothrace is then under the control of Lysimaque, enemy of Démétrios: it appears not very probable that this last could dedicate a monument to it.

The discovery of monuments in the shape of boat with Lindos, a city of Rhodos, the type of boat represented and the origin of the marble of the base then make conclude with a monument rhodien, in commemoration of a victory such as that of Cos (v. 261 av. J. - C.), of Sidè or of Myonnisos (both in 190 av. J. - C.).

The time corresponds to the working life of the Pythocritos sculptor, wire of Timocharis, mentioned by Pline and several registered bases, known to be the author of the one of the monuments of the Acropole of Lindos. However Champoiseau had found in 1892, with the immediate surroundings of the statue, a fragment out of marble of Lartos carrying the signature “ … Σ ΡΟΔΙΟΣ /… S RHODIOS ”, which can correspond to “Pythocritos of Rhodos”. However, his relationship with the exèdre containing the Victoire is not attested; especially, the presence of a basin of prohibited embedding of small size to see another thing there that a base of statuette.

Another assumption makes statue a votive offering of Antigone II Gonatas after its victory against the Ptolémées with Cos, in the years 250 av. J. - C. One knows indeed that Antigone devotes a statue to Délos: it could have devoted another of them to Samothrace, sanctuary traditionally under protection of the Antigonides.

Lastly, some also compared the Victoire with characters of the plank of the Grand Furnace bridge of Pergame, whose sculptors were then very famous.