Victoria

Title: Victoria

Artist: Monument designed by Giuseppe Sacconi

Location: Victor Emmanuel Monument

Date: 1911, 1935 (inauguration, completion of the Victor Emmanuel Monument)

Size: unknown

Medium: unknown

Photo: Lisa Lyon

Significance of the work:

The Victor Emmanuel Monument is an ostentatious display of power and wealth, erected to celebrate the man who unified Italy into one nation: Victor Emmanuel II. A prime example of the exaggerated design is the fact that the structure displays not one, but two sculptures of the goddess Victoria riding quadrigas in her chariot. Victoria was, appropriately, the Roman goddess of victory. Her Greek equivalent was the goddess Nike, but Victoria played a far more important role in Roman society than Nike ever had in Greece. At one point in time, Victoria had several temples erected in her honor in the city of Rome, including one on Palatine Hill and an altar in the Senate House. The monument was designed by Giuseppe Sacconi, but the various sculptures were contributed by other artists. The monument is 443 ft wide and 230 ft high. These statues are meant to be personifications of the city’s ideals of victory over all, and are meant to engender national pride in past glories and provide hope for the future.