Naiad
Naiad
Published 2017-02-23T20:08:36+00:00
This sculpture is of a Naiad. Naiad's were associated with fresh water, as the Oceanids were with saltwater and the Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean; but because the Greeks thought of the world's waters as all one system, which percolated in from the sea in deep cavernous spaces within the bosom of the earth, to rise freshened in seeps and springs, there was some overlap. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, to surface on the island of Sicily. Otherwise, the essence of a naiad was bound to her spring. If a naiad's body of water dried, she died.They were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to fertility and human life. Boys and girls at coming-of-age dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring. In places like Lerna their waters' ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Animals were ritually drowned there. Oracles might be sited by ancient springs.
The artist was very interested in Asian faces. In the 1920s, encouraged by Cassirer, he made drypoints of dancers and nudes in motion, subjects he favored in his sculpture. This was when he created Naiad.
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Date published | 23/02/2017 |
Time to do | 170 - 340 minutes |
Material Quantity | 22 |
Dimensions | 125×114×52 |
Technology | FDM |
Complexity | Medium |
Title | Naiad |
Date | 1912 |
Dimension | Height: 42.75 cm |
Accession | CK 302 |
Period | Modern Art |
Medium | Bronze |
Credit | Acquired in 1948 |
Record | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Kolbe |
Artist | Georg Kolbe |
Place | Pushkin Museum |