Where Is Winged Victory of Samothrace? Museum Location

Q: Where can I see the Winged Victory?

She stands at the top of the Daru Staircase in the Louvre in Paris. The dramatic placement, with the figure appearing to land on the prow of a ship, has been one of the museum's most photographed views since the statue was installed there in 1884.

Q: How big is the Winged Victory?

The figure itself is 3.28 meters (nearly 11 feet) tall. Including the ship's prow base, the total height reaches 5.57 meters (over 18 feet). She's carved from Parian marble, one of the finest grades in ancient Greece. The ship base is made from a different marble, Lartos marble from Rhodes.

Q: Who does the Winged Victory represent?

She's Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. The sculpture was created around 190 BCE to commemorate a naval victory. A French consul named Charles Champoiseau discovered her on the island of Samothrace in 1863. The sculptor's identity is unknown.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called Nike of Samothrace, dates to approximately 190 BCE. This Hellenistic Greek sculpture depicts Nike, the goddess of victory, alighting on the prow of a warship. Her wings spread wide, her drapery whipped by sea wind, she celebrates a naval triumph.

French archaeologists discovered the statue in 1863 on the island of Samothrace in the Aegean Sea. It arrived at the Louvre in 118 fragments and was painstakingly reconstructed. The head and arms were never found, though a single hand appeared decades later. The statue originally stood on a hilltop sanctuary overlooking the sea.

The sculptor mastered the illusion of wet fabric clinging to the body, revealing the form beneath while suggesting powerful forward motion. Standing at the top of the Daru staircase, the Nike remains one of the Louvre's most photographed works and among the greatest surviving examples of Hellenistic art.

She stands at the top of the Daru Staircase in the Louvre in Paris. The dramatic placement, with the figure appearing to land on the prow of a ship, has been one of the museum's most photographed views since the statue was installed there in 1884.

The figure itself is 3.28 meters (nearly 11 feet) tall. Including the ship's prow base, the total height reaches 5.57 meters (over 18 feet). She's carved from Parian marble, one of the finest grades in ancient Greece. The ship base is made from a different marble, Lartos marble from Rhodes.

She's Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. The sculpture was created around 190 BCE to commemorate a naval victory. A French consul named Charles Champoiseau discovered her on the island of Samothrace in 1863. The sculptor's identity is unknown.

The head and both arms were never recovered. Only fragments of the right hand and a few fingers have been found. Despite the missing parts, the statue's dramatic sense of forward motion, the wind pressing fabric against her body, wings spread wide, makes it one of the most powerful sculptures from ancient Greece.

Winged Victory of Samothrace

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About Winged Victory of Samothrace

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