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The Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Greek marble statue carved around 190 BC, shows Nike, the goddess of victory, alighting on the prow of a warship. It has lost its head and both arms, yet it is one of the Louvre's most admired works.

Classical sculpture (Winged Victory)

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Samothrace is a small Greek island in the northern Aegean. Charles Champoiseau, then acting head of the French consulate in Adrianople (today's Edirne in Turkey), found the statue there in pieces in April 1863, and it reached Paris in May 1864. Its ship-shaped base followed later, and since 1884 the reassembled statue has stood at the top of the Louvre's Daru staircase. In 1950 the Louvre's Jean Charbonneaux found the palm of the right hand at the site, and it was joined to two fingers that Austrian excavators had found in 1875 and that were kept in Vienna. The hand has been shown beside the statue since 1954.

Türkçe oku
Semadirek Kanatlı Zaferi, MÖ 190 dolaylarında yontulmuş bir Yunan mermer heykelidir ve zafer tanrıçası Nike'yi bir savaş gemisinin pruvasına konarken gösterir. Başını ve iki kolunu yitirmiş olsa da Louvre'un en çok hayranlık uyandıran eserlerinden biridir.

Semadirek (Yunanca Samothraki), Kuzey Ege'de küçük bir Yunan adasıdır. O sırada Fransa'nın Edirne konsolosluğunu vekâleten yöneten Charles Champoiseau, heykeli Nisan 1863'te bu adada parçalar hâlinde buldu; heykel Mayıs 1864'te Paris'e ulaştı. Gemi biçimindeki kaidesi daha sonra getirildi ve yeniden birleştirilen heykel 1884'ten beri Louvre'daki Daru merdiveninin başında duruyor. 1950'de Louvre'dan Jean Charbonneaux, kazı alanında sağ elin avuç kısmını buldu. Bu parça, Avusturyalı kazıcıların 1875'te bulup Viyana'da sakladığı iki parmakla birleştirildi. El, 1954'ten beri heykelin yanında sergileniyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Winged Victory of Samothrace
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