Nike of Samothrace

The large glass-covered light garden in the middle of the academy building is called Nikehallen and was created in the 1890s. Nike is the goddess of victory in ancient Greek mythology. Carried by her wings, she always follows Athena, the goddess of strategic warfare. But Athena, or Minerva as she was called in ancient Rome, was also the goddess of wisdom and patron of the arts. It is therefore not so strange that Nike has been given a prominent position at the Academy of Fine Arts as well.

Nike is the youngest, and probably the last, of the large plaster sculptures that the Academy of Fine Arts acquired for its collection. At the front of the plaster plinth is the oval mark showing that she was cast at the state-owned French foundry that was attached to the Louvre.

The sculpture was excavated on the island of Samothrace as late as 1863. The fact that the original is in the museum in Paris is explained by the fact that it was the French consul Charles Champoiseau who led the excavations. It also turned out that Nike had crowned a monument to a naval victory. In the Louvre, Nike stands on its original marble ship's prow, while the Academy of Arts' plaster concentrates solely on the figure.

We don't know for sure what Nike's head and arms looked like. She may have worn a victory wreath, or even held a trumpet, as in several other ancient representations of her. But perhaps she didn't need any attributes here at all: Just her body with the clinging dress and the mighty wings, which struggle forward despite the headwind. It is this speed, this dynamism that many have admired.

But Nike has also provoked artists and others who rebelled against tradition. In the 1909 manifesto of the futurist poet Marinetti, a racing car is said to be more beautiful than the ancient goddess of victory. In a new, technology-obsessed and speed-blind age, Nike would literally be overtaken.