English: Early Greek representations of Nike frequently shown her in this pose, with arms and legs bent sharply, as if running, and wings outstretched. Later more naturalistic poses emerged, with the goddess appearing as if flying. This figure, part of the British Museum's collection, was originally attached to a vessel. It dates to c.500 BC and was possibly made in Taranto, Italy. Catalogue entry

Identifier: greekbronzes00murr (find matches)
Title: Greek bronzes
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Murray, A. S. (Alexander Stuart), 1841-1904
Subjects: Bronzes, Greek
Publisher: London : Seeley and Co. New York : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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Text Appearing Before Image:
ading the wings sidewards. Truth of that kind was of less importance to them than the beauty of the wings themselves, with their longsweeping lines enclosing narrow, flat surfaces which lie contiguously, andappealed irresistibly in an early stage of art, when artists did not carefor more truth to Nature than what was necessary for the moment. Another delight of those early sculptors was in the contrasts which they found, or established, between the more or less horizontal lines of the wings and the vertical lines of the drapery as seen in the bronze. The effect was one of balance and stability as against the rapid movementof the figure. There was the contrast also between the feathers of the wings, rigid and flat by nature, and the folds of the dress where they are thrown into irregularity by the accident of movement. There was the contrast also of nude forms as against drapery and wings. I have pointed to these contrasts, not because it is necessary to emphasise the value
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 4.—Archaic Bronze Victory. British Museum. and importance of them at all times, but specially because in the olderarts of Egypt and Assyria nothing of the kind had been recognised to any extent; because the Greeks were the first to indicate the supreme importance of such things, and because in our statuette the separate values of wings, drapery, and nude forms have obviously been the subjectof anxious consideration. In archaic sculpture oi the sixth century b.c. we have often occasionto notice the habit of lifting the skirt a little. It was the fashion then for women to wear long dresses falling to the ground in many fine folds, especially on public occasions when they went to attend ceremonies in the temples. Ordinary prudence would suggest lifting the skirt from the ground. But we see this action frequently also in figures which arestanding placidly. It is almost always only a slight movement, just enough to throw the otherwise vertical and straight folds into beco

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