Hope Athena Goddess

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The Hope Athena’s modern display is strategically designed in order to compliment her origin and the place she was uncovered. She stands on one side of a doorway while another statue, the Hope Hygieia, stands on the other side. While Athena was the goddess of war and daughter to Zeus, Hygieia was the goddess of continued good health and is where the modern term hygiene comes from. Both statues were excavated in 1797 in the ruins of an elaborate mansion and it's incredible to think that they are currently standing next to each other nearly two centuries after their discovery. Apart from their theme of unity, the two statutes help balance each other out as well. The Hope Hygieia is a more mellow statue of a woman without a helmet, wearing a simple …show more content…
While her placement in a museum is fitting of her status of goddess of wisdom, her placement in front of this door fulfills her title of goddess of war. By being placed directly to the side of the doorway, the Hope Athena almost seems to be protecting the other works of art that survived from her time of creation. Aside from her direct surroundings including the Hope Hygieia, the entire room she resides in is larger in scale compared to the other rooms featured throughout the gallery. This is fitting for the Hope Athena due to her importance and large size and also due to the fact that she is surrounded by other similar sculptures. Aside from her physical positioning within the gallery, another interesting point to make is the method of light used to emphasize her presence. Rather than having the entire room fully lit with the same amount of light hitting each artwork, there were direct beams of light pointed at the Hope Athena and the Hope Hygieia which made their marble material shimmer as if they were alive. This dramatic method of lighting helps differentiate these two statues from their other featured …show more content…
While the Hope Athena stands next to another statue to the side of a room next to a doorway, the Lansdowne Artemis is the only standing statue in the room it's presented in. Furthermore, the statue is placed directly in the middle of that room. Contrasting the Lansdowne Artemis to the Hope Athena, it is a well-thought feature to be able to walk around the statue a full 360 degrees in order to view it from all angles. What was particularly interesting about this statue was that while moving and observing the statue from different angles, each different vantage point showed the same overall emotion. From the front of the statue, it is clearly that the Lansdowne Artemis is standing in a relaxed manner. That perception of her does not change while rotating around her. That same ease of body is present from the back through her relaxed shoulder as is to her side with her jutted hip. In the Hope Athena’s case, because it’s back is directly in front of a wall, there is a limited number of angles to observe it from. It is a shame that the Lansdowne Artemis has full viewing capabilities while the Hope Athena is limited as it would be especially interesting to view Athena’s head and armour from different viewing points. The Lansdowne Artemis is a headless statue and the room it is placed in does a wonderful job dealing with that. Directly to the right of the statue

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