Head of Victory

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Head of Victory derives from one of several studies Saint-Gaudens made for the striding, windblown allegorical figure on his monument (1892–1903) to the Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman at the southeast corner of Manhattan’s Central Park. While this version of the head differs from the one he ultimately used for the monumental figure, it shares that figure’s dual symbolism, emphasized by the Greek words inscribed on the base: NIKE–EIPHNH (Victory–Peace).

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art