Grand Tour: Ancient Bronze Athena, After The Antique

Magnificent bronze with a dark brown patina with green nuances from the 19th century, representing the full-length and majestic statue of Athena Parthenos after the antique. The Goddess, Greek divinity of wisdom, strategic warfare and the arts, is dressed in a peplos, and wears in her pectoral the aegis bordered with snakes, with, in its center, at the level of the solar plexus, the gorgoneion. Adorned with her attributes, such as the shield and her crested helmet, she carries in her right hand a small winged statue: Nike, the goddess of victory.
The posture of the goddess evokes her grandeur and her power, the drapery with carefully detailed folds follows the silhouette of the divinity, mixing grace and femininity with the warrior attributes which are hers.
The neutrality of her face, like the antique, reveals few emotions, with the exception of the power and fatality which she exudes. Through this work, the viewer feels the importance and veneration that the Greeks accorded to the protector of Athens.
Comment: This reduction of the Athena Parthenos illustrates the 19th century craze for ancient models and the diffusion of Greek aesthetic canons. A decorative but also educational object, it testifies to the rediscovery of classical Greece in scholarly and artistic Europe.
Height = 51.5 cmWidth = 19 cmDepth = 23 cm