Nike of Paionios
- Title:
- Nike of Paionios
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Paionios of Mende
- Photographer:
- Mihaloew, Andreya
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
ca. 420 BCE
2015 (image)
- Site:
- Olympia, Greece (discovery site, 1875) (original)
- Location:
- Klarman Hall Atrium, Cornell University
Olympia, Greece (discovery site, 1875) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0850
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 155
780 - File Name:
- CCC_0850.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 195 (H) cm
- Culture:
- Greek
- Style/Period:
- High Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Nike (Greek deity)
- Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- ca. 195 (centimeters, height)
- Description:
- This is a cast of the Nike of Paionios, a slightly over life-sized depiction of the goddess of victory dedicated to Zeus by the Messenians and Naupaktians at Olympia and sculpted by Paionios of Mende. The original is housed in Olympia. Nike is shown descending from flight with her left (proper) leg advanced. Her drapery revealingly clings to her body and appears heavy as it flows behind her. Her left breast and left leg are bare. The goddess' head is heavily damaged in the original. Her left arm was raised, her right was lowered. Her wings, large and mostly missing in the original, would have extended up and back. Below Nike's feet and flying to the viewer's left is an eagle, a bird closely associated with Zeus and directly referencing the god. This cast was made prior to the discovery of several fragments of the goddess' arms. The original monument was set up in close proximity to the Temple of Zeus at Olympia by the Messenians and Naupaktians to commemorate the 425 BCE victory over Sparta at Pylos and Sphakteria and was mounted on a tall, triangular pillar. Cornell's cast of the Nike of Paionios was reassembled and conserved in winter 2014/2015. Prior to that time, it survived in a heavily damaged, fragmentary state. This record represents the cast as reassembled from separately cast sections and fragments. Preexisting records of those sections and fragments also remain in the database (ID nos. 123, 165, 165a, 165b, 165c, and 541). From January until July 2015, this object was exhibited in the Bartels Gallery, Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, as part of an exhibition titled "Cast and Present: Replicating Antiquity in the Museum and the Academy." In February 2016, the work was installed in the Atrium of Klarman Hall, where it will remain on permanent view.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
inv. L 49 - Bibliography:
- Georg Treu, ed., Die Bildwerke von Olympia in Stein und Thon. Olympia. Die Ergebnisse der von dem deutschen Reich veranstalteten Ausgrabung, Textband III (Berlin, 1897) 182-194
Tonio Hölscher, “Die Nike der Messenier und Naupaktier in Olympia. Kunst und Geschichte im späten 5 Jahrhundert v. Chr.,” JdI 89 (1974), 70-111
Andrew Stewart, Greek Sculpture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 89-92, figs. 408-411
Rune Frederiksen and R. R. R. Smith, The Cast Gallery of the Ashmolean Museum. Catalogue of plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculpture (Oxford: The Ashmolean Museum, 2011), 98-99, no. B 86a-i
P.P. Caproni and brother, Catalogue of Plaster Reproductions from Antique, Medieval and Modern Sculpture (Boston, MA, 1911), 21 - Related Work:
- ID nos. 123, 165, 165a, 165b, 165c, and 541 belong together. ID no. 780 is the record for the object as reassembled and conserved in winter 2014/2015.
- Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Olympia, Archaeological Museum (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.