Hope Athena Statue: an Imposing Woman Looking Down Upon Her Visitors - Case Study Example

Within the Roman Gallery of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art stands the broken statue called the Hope Athena. The statue depicts an imposing woman wearing ancient Greek or Roman clothing looking down upon her visitors. Broken elements of the statue include her missing arms, a broken part of her nose and broken segments from her helmet. These scars have been left fully exposed rather than repaired to help designate the antiquity of her form. The statue is clearly made of white marble, designating the wealth of the Romans and the honor they gave to this personage. The museum also indicates that this warrior goddess is a Roman statue created in the 2nd century AD in the style of a Greek original made in the late 5th century BC under the school of Pheidias. There are numerous ways in which this statue stands out as a prime example of fine ancient stonework. The Athena is depicted in a very naturalistic style. By saying this, it is meant that she stands in a natural-seeming pose and the clothing she is given drapes around her in a very natural way. Her clothing reveals at least three layers of fabrics under the protective warrior breastplate she wears. Each layer is depicted with its own unique drapery. The under skirt, apparent only near her ankles, demonstrates a tight gathering of plentiful material, creating what might be called today a broomstick skirt effect. The fabric falls in tight folds around her feet and brushes the ground, almost managing to hide the sandaled feet separated for better balance and indicating she’s ready to spring to action if needed. The upper two layers of fabric drape very naturally around the goddess’s left knee and hip respectively as they are pulled by the position of her body and fastened at the right shoulder. The fabric on the right side of her body falls in vertical loose drapery indicating both the style and the wealth of the material she wears. The way in which this material is made to drape over the form of the goddess’s body emphasizes both her natural stance and her warrior status. She stands in what is known as a classic contrapposto pose. This means that one foot is placed somewhat behind and to the side of the other foot. What this does is throws her body out of a straight-on alignment to demonstrate the natural movement of the body to keep itself balanced. In this pose, her weight is primarily supported by the forward-facing right foot while the left knee bends and the right hip juts out somewhat. The pull this creates on the drapery of the fabric enables the artist to demonstrate the goddess’s body to greater effect, highlighting the natural strength in her broad, almost masculine shoulders and in the musculature shown in the thigh. For the Greeks, this pose indicated the perfect symmetry of the body because of the way it would naturally shift to accommodate changing positions while remaining in balance. The concept that Athena was a warrior goddess is also strongly apparent in this statue. It begins with the realization that the statue is constructed at larger than life-size. This gives her a sense of power and greatness because of her goddess status and also conveys a sense of intimidation to lowly mortals finding themselves in her presence. She is also created standing on a marble pedestal indicating that she exists on a higher plane than mortals emphasizing the Greek and Roman concepts of hierarchy and the importance of divine and mortal separation. As she appears to the modern audience, the goddess still wears a military breastplate to designate her position as a warrior. This breastplate includes the image of the gorgon, a mythical female creature with snakes for hair that could turn enemies to stone with a glance. The snakes of the gorgon are suggested in details around the edges of the breastplate as well as in the way that the artist has depicted the fall of the goddess’s hair over her shoulders. The goddess also clearly wears a helmet on her head. The museum placard indicates she likely rested some of her weight on a spear held in her left hand and was probably intended to be looking at a figure of Nike held in her right hand. The pieces broken off of her helmet were a sphinx and two griffins denoting her wisdom and courage. Annotated Bibliography Eicher, Joanne B. & Mary-Ellen Roach-Higgins. (1992). “Definition and Classification of Dress: Implications for Analysis of Gender Roles.” Dress and Gender: Making and Meaning in Cultural Contexts. R. Barnes & J.B. Eicher (Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. This chapter in a book about the specific elements of dress and the signals it sends to the knowledgeable public is very informative regarding the specific levels of dress that are seen on the Hope Athena statue. The chapter does not address the statue specifically, but in its investigation of the ways in which dress, meaning clothing in general, that were common and popular in the ancient world helped to designate gender and thus define appropriate roles for the wearer, the chapter is able to give some insight into the significance of the clothing depicted on the statue. One of the more interesting elements of this chapter in relation to the Hope Athena is the observation that most women, when taking on the roles of the male gender such as fighting or other male-defined occupations, have generally also taken on the common clothing attributes of the men. The Hope Athena seems obviously dressed as a female as her body is covered from head to toe in cloth as compared to male statues which, when clothed, are generally seen in shorter togas or draped cloth. The chapter makes heavy use of outside sources as a means of both developing and supporting its arguments. Almost immediately, the chapter launches into a survey of studies that have been conducted since the beginning of the 19th century into the ways that our clothing both designates our gender and tends to restrict us into typical or expected gender roles. In his survey of the evolutionary approach to clothing analysis and gender, the author reveals the concept that more advanced civilizations such as the Greeks and Romans would naturally have worn more clothes than those of more primitive societies. In this revelation, it would seem natural to assume that the Hope Athena, garbed as she is so heavily in layers of fabric, is an indication of an extremely high level of civilization, surpassing even that of the Romans yet not so high above them that she cannot understand their needs and desires. Another relevant concept the author reveals in this survey is the idea that some societies, such as the Greeks and the Romans, had very little differentiation in their dress from one gender to the other, but that the way they were worn or draped conveyed much about their gender, roles in society and placement within the social order. This suggests that there might be more information to glean out of the Hope Athena simply in the way that her clothing is draped than immediately comes to mind upon looking at it. Steiner, Deborah Tarn. (2001). Images in Mind: Statues in Archaic and Classical Greek Literature and Thought. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. This book provides in depth study of the process and use of statuary in ancient Greece. Although it doesn’t directly address the topic of the Hope Athena statue seen at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which was made during the Roman period, it provides a lot of background information about the statuary that was made in the period prior to this and of which this statue was a replica. Part of the book talks about the process of creating a statue as a reductive process and the effects this has on the mind of the creator. This is important because it affects how the creation is made, the images that come out of the rock as the sculptor is working and the degree of expression they achieve. It also reveals new developments in the creation of statuary during the period discussed by the book. This discussion could be helpful in identifying elements of the Hope Athena that are different from the Greek tradition and that might more closely reflect the Roman interpretations of Greek artistry and myth. Another chapter discusses the particular elements involved in the creation of an image intended to represent divinity and how the carving serves to emphasize these ideas. The strongest element of this book is the way it relates the images of the statues to the literature of the Greeks which helps to extrapolate what the Romans might have understood or valued about the art. The author of the book is a professor of Classics at Columbia University and therefore has strong credentials for writing such a book. She uses a high number of references to support her main points and several of these include the primary texts. The book is also widely used by other scholars as evidence to support their points on other topics or other points of view on this topic. What this book will contribute to the conversation is a clearer understanding of the Greek view of this goddess and some perspective on how the Roman interpretation might have been different. Loewen, Nancy. (1999). Athena. New York: Capstone Press. This volume of the Greek and Roman Mythology series focuses its entire length on a study of what is known about the goddess Athena. Within this text, the author explores the background of the goddess, her origin and her interpretations over time as she made the transition from the Greek to the Roman societies. Chapters included in the book are “About Mythology,” “The Goddess Athena,” “Gifts to Humankind,” “Athena and Heroes” and “Mythology in the Modern World.” As these chapter titles indicate, the focus of the book is not merely on understanding the goddess as she existed within ancient society, but also to understand how she has transcended time to remain an important symbol for the modern world. What is helpful about this book is the way in which it provides logical discussion about the important elements of the goddess and how she interacted with her people. Loewen says, “She was the goddess of wisdom, war and the useful arts. The useful arts included farming, spinning, weaving and playing music. She was also the protector of heroes, cities and states” (Loewen 15). This discussion shows why she was held in such high esteem and reflects on how she offers the contemporary world an example of a non-stereotypical female role in antiquity. To support her findings, Loewen refers to numerous scholarly sources and works of antiquity such as statues and paintings that explore the symbols and meanings associated with this goddess. She provides her readers with a working glossary that makes it easy to understand what she’s talking about and she provides a list of sources that provide more information than what is contained within the book. The style of writing is formally conversational which makes it easy to read and it is typeset in a larger font so that the pages are quick. By constantly placing the information in a conversational style, the author keeps the reader interested and the information being presented relevant to the modern understanding. It is an excellent introduction to the specific elements that are important to know about Athena. Read More