Winged Victory of Samothrace in Popular Culture
The Winged Victory of Samothrace, a marble Hellenistic sculpture of Nike (the Greek goddess of victory) that was created in about the 2nd century BC, has been copied numerous times around the world.
Numerous copies exist in museums and galleries around the world; one of the best-known copies stands outside the Caesars Palace casino in Las Vegas. The first FIFA World Cup Trophy, commissioned in 1930 and designed by Abel Lafleur, was based on the model. This statue was a favorite of architect Frank Lloyd Wright and he used reproductions of it in a number of his buildings, including Ward Willits House, Darwin D. Martin House and Storer House.
The largest public sculpture based on Nike appears in a prominent position atop the massive Pennsylvania State Memorial at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia sculptor Samuel Murray, a student and intimate of painter Thomas Eakins, produced the 28-foot figure in 1911 with possible influence from Augustus Saint-Gaudens' Nike interpretation on the Sherman Memorial in New York City (1903). Saint-Gaudens depicts Nike with her right arm raised while it is thought the original Nike was not making such gesture. Saint-Gaudens' Nike also wears a laurel wreath on her head and bears a large olive branch in her left hand. Murray adapted the laurel wreath and olive branch innovations but also placed a sword in Nike's raised right hand.[1]
Replicas[edit]
Starting in 1962, Yves Klein produced a series of plaster replicas of the Nike coated in dry pigment of his signature International Klein Blue affixed by resin entitled Victoire de Samatrace.[2]
Swedish author Gunnar Ekelöf made Nike a central image in his poem Samothrace, written in 1941,[3] where the faceless deity, arms outstretched like sails, is made into a symbol of the fight and the coming victory against Nazism and the struggle for freedom throughout history. It also features in the Matthew Reilly novel Seven Ancient Wonders, where it is fictionally made part of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia.
A full-size replica of the statue sits in The Ohio State University's Thompson Library in Columbus, Ohio.[4] Another full size replica stands in the lobby of Crouse College, home to the Setnor School of Music, at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. A 7-foot (2.1 m) replica of the sculpture stands at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. The second-largest replica of this statue in the United States stands at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is 10 ft (3.0 m) high.
Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas has a replica which was purchased from the Louvre and shipped from Paris in 1982. This replica is actually a replacement of the original 1929 replica given to commemorate Armistice Day and the defeat of autocracy.[5] A replica of the statue sits overlooking the Veterans area of the Skylawn Memorial Park in San Mateo, California.[6]
The Estrugamou Building in Buenos Aires, Argentina was built in four sections, arranged around a patio adorned with a bronze copy of the iconic Winged Victory of Samothrace. The Cape Town Cenotaph is topped by a replica of the Winged Victory of Samothrace by British sculptor Vernon March. Another plaster replica adorns the atrium of Technische Universität Berlin. The replica was a gift by French universities to the TU Berlin in 1956.[7]
Augustus Saint-Gaudens' 1903 William Tecumseh Sherman statue of General William Tecumseh Sherman in Grand Army Plaza, New York City, depicts a robed, winged Nike leading Sherman while holding a palm branch, as a symbol of his victory in the Civil War and the peace to follow.[8]
The Golden Nica Award presented by the Prix Ars Electronica is a replica of Winged Victory of Samothrace.[9]
Graffiti artist Banksy created CCTV Angel in 2006 depicting a robed, winged figure with a CCTV camera for a head, as a statement on the overreach with security surveillance in society.[10]
Hip Hop artist Killer Mike of the group Run the Jewels has a gold replica of Winged Victory of Samothrace as his signature chain.
Several scenes in The Carters' (Beyoncé and Jay-Z) music video, APES**T are filmed in the Louvre museum in front of The Winged Victory of Samothrace.[11]
In the video game series Animal Crossing, a replica is available to purchase under the name of a valiant statue. However, you may be sold a fake with the legs swapped, which you cannot donate to the in-game museum.
Notes[edit]
- ↑ "Winged Victory: A Closer Look at the Pennsylvania Memorial". The Blog of Gettysburg National Military Park. April 30, 2016.
- ↑ "Samothrace Victory – Galerie Omagh". www.galerieomagh.com. Retrieved 2016-03-16.
- ↑ In Ekelöf, Non Serviam, Bonniers, Stockholm 1945, and in later collected editions of his poems.
- ↑ "Winged Victory replica statue placed in Thompson Library, 100 year history with Ohio State".
- ↑ "Campus Art – TWU TWU Libraries – Texas Woman's University". www.twu.edu. Retrieved 2015-09-17.
- ↑ "About Us - Skylawn Memorial Park - Funeral - Cremation - Cremation".
- ↑ "Stabsstelle Presse, Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und Alumni: Kunstwerke". www.pressestelle.tu-berlin.de.
- ↑ "Grand Army Plaza, New York, NY - CT Monuments.net". ctmonuments.net.
- ↑ "Nike". ArsElectronica. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
- ↑ "Bansky: CCTV Angel". Artnet. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
- ↑ Lang, Cady (June 19, 2018). "A Guide to the Art in Beyonce & Jay Z's Apesh-t Louvre Video". Time. Retrieved 2021-03-07. Unknown parameter
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