Italic Marble, Height 1.70m, Friends of the Uffizi Gallery Leonardo Level
Female Statue Restored as Nike
2nd Century AD
Statue of Victory (Nike)
Third Corridor
Inv. 1914 no. 101
Roman Art
II Century A.D.
Pentelic Marble
Height: m. 1. 70
La sculpture, coming from the illustrious Roman collection of Palazzo Cesi, has been in the Uffizi Gallery at least since the VII Century, always attracting the attention of scholars for its iconography representing, originally, a dancing woman, and later integrated, in the XVI Century, as the goddess of Victory.
The ancient part includes most of the body with the base, whereas the head and both arms with the attributes are integrations. The investigations carried out on the fissures during this restoration ascertained the modern nature of the head, with its junction at the base of the neck adapted to fit onto the ancient body.
The restoration works included:
- Thorough dusting of the entire surfaces with soft-bristled brushes and vacuum cleaners
- Mechanical cleaning with a scalpel to remove the darkened old filling materials
- Cleaning tests on significant areas of the marble surface in order to define the correct cleaning method and products
- Gentle cleaning of the surface to completely remove deposits of dust and sooth by means of swabs alternately dampened with demineralized water and white spirit
- Levelling and retouching of fills between fissures and integrations
- In-painting of fills with watercolor to blend with the hues of the sculpture’s surface
On completion of the restoration process the statue has recovered its chromatic unity and legibility. All ancient and modern parts were accurately mapped and the restoration phases systematically photographed. The new documentation, deposited at the Uffizi Gallery Restoration Archive, will allow future further studies for a more accurate chronological and iconographic classification of the sculpture.
Click here to download the PDF fact sheet for this restoration project.
Click here to download curator’s notes from the Uffizi Gallery.
