Fragment of a Marble Relief with a Nike in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2007

Fragment of a marble relief with a Nike
Greek, early 4th century BC

Accession # 18.145.61

This figure must represent a Nike (a personification of victory) for a few feathers of her right wing are visible carved in low relief on the background. The wind-blown drapery that clings to her body and the ridgelike folds that form beautiful curved patterns are typical of the elegant mannered art of the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC. Although this twisting figure brings to mind those on the reliefs that decorated the Nike Parapet at the entrance to the Athenian Akropolis, it must have been part of a metope or relief from a temple or other building constructed at approximately the same period.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.