Nike of Samothrace – History of the Winged Victory Sculpture
The Nike of Samothrace statue is named after the island on which it was found, in the northern Aegean Sea. Now housed at the Louvre Museum, it is not known who carved the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Most scholars today date it to around 200 to 190 BC and connect it to a Rhodian naval victory, though an older theory linked it to Demetrios Poliorcetes around 295 BC. It is a celebrated work of Hellenistic Greek sculpture and depicts the goddess of victory, Nike.
The Nike of Samothrace Statue
| Date of Creation | c. 200-190 BC |
| Sculptor | Unknown (a damaged inscription once read as naming Pythokritos of Rhodes is disputed) |
| Dimensions | 2.75 m (statue); 5.57 m with base and pedestal |
| Now Housed | Louvre Museum, Paris |
The Nike of Samothrace statue is also known as the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Although it was carved in the early second century BC, it was not rediscovered until the 1860s, and it has since been through several rounds of restoration. The table below gives the key dates; the fuller story follows, starting with the nineteenth century.
| 1863 | Champoiseau excavates the statue’s body and drapery at Samothrace |
| 1864 | Statue reaches the Louvre; first restoration begins |
| 1875 | Austrian excavators identify the grey marble base blocks |
| 1879 | Champoiseau retrieves the base; Louvre begins reassembly |
| 1880-1883 | Ravaisson-Mollien reconstructs statue and base at the Louvre |
| 1939-1945 | Removed for safekeeping during WWII; reinstalled in 1945 |
| 1950 | Palm of the right hand found; joined to earlier fingers and displayed from 1954 |
| 2013-2014 | Full scientific study and restoration; traces of blue paint found on the wings |
Discovery and Restoration in the 19th Century
From the 6th of March until the 7th of May, 1863, Charles Champoiseau, acting head of the French consulate at Adrianople, in the Ottoman Empire, excavated the remains of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace. On the 13th of April 1863, he uncovered a bust and the body of a colossal female statue carved from white marble, together with several feathers and drapery pieces.
He recognized this as the goddess Victory or Nike, who was typically depicted as a winged lady in Greek mythology.
In the same location was a tangle of roughly 15 huge grey marble blocks, whose shape he took to be a burial monument. He chose to transport the statue and its fragments to the Louvre Museum while leaving the grey marble slabs on the site. Leaving Samothrace in early May 1863, the statue reached Toulon by the end of August and arrived in Paris on the 11th of May, 1864.
Adrien de Longpérier, then curator of antiquities at the Louvre, carried out the first repair from 1864 to 1866. The main structure rests on a stone base and is largely completed with plaster in the fabric folds, including the drapery of Nike’s himation trailing behind the legs. Fragments too large to mount, including part of the right side of the bust and much of the left wing, were kept in storage.
Given the outstanding craftsmanship of the sculpture, Longpérier opted to present the body alone, which was displayed among the Roman sculptures until 1880, initially in the Caryatid Room and then temporarily in the Tiber Room.
In 1875, Austrian researchers, who had been excavating the structures of the Samothrace sanctuary under Alexander Conze since 1870, explored the spot where Champoiseau had discovered the Victory. The architect Alois Hauser sketched the grey marble blocks left on site and concluded that, correctly assembled, they formed the tapering bow of a ship, and that, set on a base, they served as the foundation for the statue.
Tetradrachms of Demetrios Poliorcetes, struck between 301 and 292 BC, show a winged Victory standing on the prow of a ship with wings spread, and offer a useful model for this style of sculpture. Otto Benndorf, an expert in ancient sculpture who was responsible for studying the statue’s body and the fragments held in storage at the Louvre, used the coin to reconstruct the missing right arm as raised to sound a trumpet.
As a result, the two men were able to create a reconstruction of the whole Samothrace statue.
Following this study, Champoiseau returned to Samothrace from the 15th to the 29th of August, 1879, specifically to transport the foundation blocks and the base slab of the Victory to the Louvre, leaving the largest unsculpted slab on the island. The blocks reached the Louvre two months later, where an installation test took place in a courtyard that December. From 1880 to 1883, Félix Ravaisson-Mollien, then director of the Department of Antiquities, rebuilt the monument along the lines proposed by the Austrian archaeologists.
On the figure’s torso, he plastered the area around the belt, inserted the recovered right portion of the bust, plastered the left side, joined the left marble wing to the body with a metal armature, and cast the entire right wing in plaster, without attempting to recreate the face or limbs. The ship-shaped base has been repaired and completed except for the damaged bow of the keel, which still has a large gap at the upper rear. The statue was then set on top of the base.
The complete memorial was subsequently positioned from the front, on the higher landing of the Daru stairway, the gallery’s main grand staircase.
Champoiseau returned to Samothrace a third time in 1891 to search for Nike’s head, without success. He did, however, bring back fragments of the drapery and base, along with a small inscribed piece and traces of colored plaster.
Restoration in the 20th Century
In 1934, the display of the Winged Victory of Samothrace changed as part of a major renovation of the Daru staircase, whose steps were widened and rebuilt. The statue was made the crowning feature of the staircase: it was moved forward on the platform to be more visible from below, and the base was raised on a new 45 cm stone block meant to evoke a fighting deck at the edge of the ship.
This arrangement remained unchanged until 2013. When the Second World War was declared in September 1939, the Nike of Samothrace was taken down from its pedestal and hidden with other treasures of the Louvre. It remained at the Château de Valençay until the Liberation and was reinstalled at the top of the staircase, undamaged, in July 1945.
In 1938, American excavators from New York University, led by Karl Lehmann, resumed investigation of the shrine of the Great Gods on Samothrace. In July 1950, working with Louvre curator Jean Charbonneaux, they recovered the palm of the statue’s right hand at the site of the Victory monument.
Two fingers that had been kept in the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna since the 1875 Austrian excavations were reattached to the hand.
The hand and fingers were later given to the Louvre Museum, where they have been displayed beside the statue since 1954. In 1952, two slabs of grey marble that had been used to anchor fishing boats on the beach below the site were recovered and reassembled at the museum. Ira Mark and Marianne Hamiaux studied them in 1996 and found that, joined together, they formed the base block Champoiseau had left behind in 1879.
Restoration in the 21st Century
From 2008 to 2014, an American team digitized the whole sanctuary to support 3D restoration work. Study of the area around the Victory monument and of the small base fragments kept in storage continued from 2013 to 2014 under B. D. Wescoat. The Louvre then undertook a full restoration of the monument, with two goals: to clean all of its surfaces and to improve its overall appearance.
The sculpture was removed from its foundation to be examined scientifically (UV, X-rays, marble analysis): remnants of blue paint were found on the wings and a band at the base of the mantle. The base’s blocks were dismantled one by one in order to be sketched and analyzed.
The nineteenth-century restoration was kept in a few places (the narrowed neck and the join of the left arm), pieces from the Louvre’s own collection were added (a feather on the upper left wing, a fold at the back of the chitôn), and the metal clamp behind the left leg was removed. Casts of small joining fragments found at Samothrace were incorporated into the base, and a cast of the large ship’s-bow block still on Samothrace was replaced by a metal support on a cylinder to keep the monument properly balanced. Where the two original components meet on the base, the difference in the color of the stone is visible again.
The entire structure is reconstructed on a contemporary base, a little distanced on the platform to enable visitor flow.
The statue remains on permanent display at the top of the Daru staircase, in Room 703 of the Louvre’s Denon wing.
Description of the Winged Victory of Samothrace
The statue, carved from white Parian marble, shows Nike, a winged woman, landing on the bow of a ship. She wears a long garment of fine, folded cloth, belted beneath the breast and held to the shoulders by two narrow straps. The lower body is partly covered by a heavy mantle, rolled at the waist and open where the full left leg shows through; one end falls between the thighs to the ground, while a smaller fold streams out openly behind. It is one of a relatively small number of large-scale Hellenistic sculptures to survive in the original marble rather than as a later Roman copy.
The mantle slips from her shoulders, held in place on the right leg only by the pressure of the wind. The sculptor heightened the effect of the drapery by showing the cloth pressed against the body, notably at the stomach, and gathered into deeply carved folds that cast dramatic shadow, as between the thighs.
This virtuosity is concentrated on the statue’s left side and front; the drapery on the right side is simpler, limited to the main lines of the garment. The goddess strides forward on her right leg. Both feet are missing. The right foot reaches the ground with the heel slightly raised; the left foot is still lifted, the leg extended forcefully back. She is not walking: she has just finished flying, her great wings spread out behind her.
The angle of her bent elbow suggests a gesture of triumph: the hand, its fingers spread, held nothing, neither crown nor trumpet.
There is no evidence for the position of the goddess’s left arm, which was probably lowered and slightly bent; on that side she may have held a stylis, a ship’s mast captured as a trophy aboard the enemy vessel, as shown on coins. The statue is meant to be seen from three-quarters left, from where its lines read most clearly: a straight line runs from the neck to the right foot, and a diagonal line runs from the head down along the left leg. More than most earlier Greek sculpture, the Nike draws the space around it into the composition.
The wind that carries her, and against which she strains to keep her balance (the original mounting showed her just alighting on the prow of a ship), is the sculpture’s unseen counterpart, one the viewer is compelled to imagine. At the same time, this wider sense of space heightens the work’s symbolic charge: wind and sea stand for conflict, fate, and divine aid or mercy. About two thousand years later, this kind of interaction between a sculpture and its surrounding space became a prominent technique in Baroque art and Romantic sculpture.
The boat and the base were sculpted from grey marble from the Lartos quarry in Rhodes. The foundation is shaped like the bow of a Greek Hellenistic naval vessel: narrow and long, it is capped in front by a fighting deck, which houses the sculpture.
On the sides, reinforced, protruding oar frames held two rows of staggered oars. The keel has a rounded shape. A massive triple-pronged spur was set at the base of the bow, near the waterline, with a smaller two-bladed ram somewhat higher up, both meant to break the hull of an opposing vessel. A tall, curving ornament topped the bow. None of these lost parts has been restored, which considerably softens the vessel’s warlike look.
What to Look For: A Viewing Checklist
Visitors standing at the foot of the Daru staircase can pick out the same details that shaped a century and a half of scholarship and restoration:
- Vantage point: approach from the lower landing and look up from three-quarters left, the angle from which the straight line running from neck to right foot and the diagonal from head to left leg both read most clearly.
- The wings: spread wide behind her, showing a goddess who has just finished flying rather than one about to take off.
- The drapery: wind-pressed cloth clinging to the stomach and deeply carved folds casting shadow between the thighs on the left side and front, against the plainer, simpler drapery on the right.
- The missing head and arms: never recovered despite repeated excavations; the surviving fragment of the right hand, fingers spread and empty, is displayed in its own case beside the statue rather than attached to it.
- The base: grey Lartos marble shaped like the bow of a Hellenistic warship, still missing its oars, ram, and prow ornament, with a visible change in stone color marking where the older and newer restoration pieces meet.
- The setting: Room 703 of the Denon wing, at the top of the Daru staircase, the statue’s home since 1934 apart from its wartime removal in 1939-1945.
The Function of the Nike of Samothrace Statue
Worshippers brought offerings to the sanctuary, ranging from the modest to the extravagant depending on their means, as a way to honor the gods and give thanks for their favor. Initiates into the mystery cult of the Cabeiri, the sanctuary’s gods, were also promised protection from danger at sea or in war.
By invoking them, initiates believed they could be saved from drowning or helped to victory in battle. Seen this way, a depiction of Victory alighting on the bow of a warship can be read as a thank-offering to the gods after a naval triumph. Naval victory monuments of this kind were a recognized form of offering in the Greek world during the third and early second centuries BC.
Other examples include the naval monument in the agora at Cyrene, the so-called “bull monument” on Delos, and the Neorion in the sanctuary at Samothrace itself, which housed an actual ship around 20 meters in length. A similar but smaller monument stood at the summit of the acropolis at Lindos, at the sanctuary of Athena.
Dating of the Winged Victory of Samothrace
No dedication inscription survives to say for certain when the statue was made or which naval victory it honored, so archaeologists have had to reconstruct the context from other evidence. Naval wars for control of the Aegean were frequent through the third and early second centuries BC, and two main theories about the statue’s date have competed since the nineteenth century.
| Poliorcetes theory (largely superseded) | Rhodes theory (favored today) | |
| Proposed by | 19th-century Austrian excavators, including Otto Benndorf | Hermann Thiersch (1931); refined by later scholars |
| Proposed date | c. 295 BC | c. 200-190 BC |
| Linked event | Demetrios Poliorcetes’ 306 BC naval victory over Ptolemy I at Salamis, Cyprus | A Rhodian naval victory, possibly Chios (201 BC) or Side and Myonnesos (190 BC) |
| Evidence cited | Resemblance to the Victory shown on Poliorcetes’ tetradrachms | Fragmentary inscription read as naming the sculptor Pythokritos of Rhodes; grey Lartos marble base quarried in Rhodes |
Most scholars today favor the Rhodes theory and a date around 200 to 190 BC, though which battle the monument commemorates is still debated.
The Workshop and Style of the Statue
Although the inscription once read as naming the Rhodian sculptor Pythokritos was quickly questioned because of its small size relative to the base, the monument as a whole is credited to the Rhodian school of sculpture on other grounds, including the Rhodian origin of the base’s grey marble. In 1955, the art historian Margarete Bieber grouped the work with the “Rhodian school” and what she termed the “Hellenistic Baroque,” alongside the Gigantomachy frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamon: works marked by dynamic movement, richly carved drapery, and lively figures.
This style continued in Rhodes into Roman times, appearing in large and intricate works such as the Laocoön Group and the Sperlonga sculptures, both credited to or signed by Rhodian artists. The base and the statue itself are not by the same hand: the two halves of the monument were conceived together but carved by two separate workshops. The grey Lartos marble base was made in Rhodes, where comparable work survives.
Rhodian sculpture in large-scale marble is generally of good quality but not exceptional for its period, yet there are no known parallels for the virtuosity of the Nike’s drapery carving.
The sculptor of the statue itself may have come from elsewhere, as was customary for renowned artists in ancient Greek society. The Winged Victory of Samothrace closely adapts the design of the Nike of Cyrene monument: the Samothrace sculptor added wings, extended the front leg to suggest movement, and changed the placement of the mantle, with its floating panel at the back.
Take a look at our Winged Victory of Samothrace webstory here!
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Made the Winged Victory of Samothrace?
The sculptor is not known for certain. A damaged inscription on the base was once read as naming a Rhodian sculptor, Pythokritos, but the inscription is too fragmentary to confirm this, and the reading remains disputed. The statue and its ship-shaped base appear to be the work of two different workshops: the grey Lartos marble base was carved in Rhodes, while the sculptor of the Nike itself, whose virtuosity has no close parallel among surviving Rhodian marble sculpture, may have come from elsewhere, as was common for sought-after artists in ancient Greek society. It is generally accepted that the monument was commissioned around 200 to 190 BC, most likely by Rhodes, to commemorate a naval victory, though the exact battle and patron remain uncertain.
What Was the Nike of Samothrace Statue Created For?
The Winged Victory of Samothrace was dedicated as a votive offering at the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace, most likely to thank the gods for a naval victory. Initiates into the sanctuary’s mystery cult, the Cabeiri, believed the gods protected them from danger at sea and in war, which made a ship-borne image of Victory a fitting offering there. Its pose, with the goddess seeming to alight on the prow of a warship, combines a religious offering with a public monument to military success.
From Which Period and Style Is the Winged Victory of Samothrace?
The Nike belongs to the Hellenistic period, and most scholars now date it to around 200 to 190 BC. It is carved in the dramatic, highly theatrical manner sometimes called the “Hellenistic Baroque,” a style also associated with the Great Altar of Pergamon, combining wind-blown drapery, a twisting pose, and a dramatic play of light and shadow across the marble to create a sense of movement rarely matched in Greek sculpture of any period.
Why Are the Head and Arms Missing From the Statue?
Despite several excavation campaigns at Samothrace, including one in 1891 aimed specifically at finding it, the head and both arms of the Nike have never been recovered. Only part of the right hand survived: Austrian excavators found the thumb and ring finger in 1875, and American-led excavations found the palm in 1950. The hand is displayed in a case beside the statue at the Louvre rather than attached to it, since there is not enough evidence to reconstruct exactly how the arm was held.
Isabella studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English Literature & Language and Psychology. Throughout her undergraduate years, she took Art History as an additional subject and absolutely loved it. Building on from her art history knowledge that began in high school, art has always been a particular area of fascination for her. From learning about artworks previously unknown to her, or sharpening her existing understanding of specific works, the ability to continue learning within this interesting sphere excites her greatly.
Her focal points of interest in art history encompass profiling specific artists and art movements, as it is these areas where she is able to really dig deep into the rich narrative of the art world. Additionally, she particularly enjoys exploring the different artistic styles of the 20th century, as well as the important impact that female artists have had on the development of art history.
Learn more about Isabella Meyer and the Art in Context Team.
Cite this Article
Isabella, Meyer, “Nike of Samothrace – History of the Winged Victory Sculpture.” Art in Context. November 26, 2021. URL: https://artincontext.org/nike-of-samothrace/
Meyer, I. (2021, 26 November). Nike of Samothrace – History of the Winged Victory Sculpture. Art in Context. https://artincontext.org/nike-of-samothrace/
Meyer, Isabella. “Nike of Samothrace – History of the Winged Victory Sculpture.” Art in Context, November 26, 2021. https://artincontext.org/nike-of-samothrace/.
I loved reading this, thank you