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Winged Victory of Samothrace
Nikè de Samothrace
Nike, goddess of victory, landing on a warship’s prow at the top of the Louvre’s great staircase.
Nike, the goddess of victory, alights on the prow of a warship, the wind pressing her wet robe against her body. She stood in the sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace, probably as a thank-offering for a sea battle won around 190 BC.
The French consul Charles Champoiseau dug her up in 1863, in pieces. Since 1884 she has stood on her prow at the top of the Daru staircase, where you see her from the foot of it. Her head and arms were never found; her right hand turned up on Samothrace in 1950. Stand before it in 3D ›
