This Victoire de Samothrace, is a peerless masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture. The drapery of the statue, ruffled by the wind with a large flow of fabric falling in deep folds between the legs, represented a major difficulty for the engraver in charge of reproducing all its subtleties.
The centre of the main dial is enamelled in brown, a colour that is very difficult to achieve and required a mixture of rare enamels as well as six firings in the kiln. The periphery features grisaille enamelling depicting the decorative friezes taken from two Greek vases. The ancient Greek script engraved by metallisation on the sapphire crystal bearing the applied Victory is taken from a second AD votive stele discovered in Samothrace.
#Vacheron #Constantin #Métiers #d39Art #Tribute #great #civilisations #Victoire #Samothrace