Winged Victory

Sculpture: Winged Victory of Samothrace

Date:        circa 190 BC

Location:   (originally) Samothrace Island, Greece

       (current) Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Discovered: 1863

Material:     Marble

Size:         3.28m (+/- 10'-9")

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The Louvre Museum in Paris truly is a magnificent place, no matter what level your interest in art may be. To enter, you descend to the underground entrance a number of ways - there is the more popular entrance through one of I.M. Pei's glass pyramids, or the route I preferred: the lesser used stairs adjacent to the Jardin de Tuileries. There are shops and boutiques lining the path and clustered near the entrance (including an Esprit store, which seemed to have disappeared from the States a couple of years prior and I was pleased to discover they were still around) as well as a food court. There are several wings branching off from the entrance center, and they aren't kidding when they say it will take forever and a day to view each and every piece in the entire museum. I have been back several times afterwards and am nowhere near viewing half of the displays (of course this is because I usually pick a few must sees and then get tired afterwards - those are some really long hallways!). And then some of my must sees are usually repeated. What do I consider a must-see in the Louvre? Obviously, the Mona Lisa (which, surprisingly wasn't as large as I had expected). Venus de Milo also makes it onto my short list as well as the Psyche and Cupid statue (also much smaller than I imagined). I also like walking around the "original" Medieval walls of the Louvre. Among all of these pieces, what I am most impressed by is the statue of Winged Victory of Samothrace (aka Nike of Samothrace). This statue not only is of a size that I would imagine for it to be, but the positioning of it at the end of a gigantic hall at the top of the steps is bound to impress anyone. Oh, and date of sculpture being circa 190 BC is pretty impressive as well. Unfortunately, my hand sketched her stumpier than she really is. Sorry Nike, my bad.