The ''Gradiva, The woman who walks,'' is a modern 20th century mythological figure from the novella ''

Gradiva The ''Gradiva, The woman who walks,'' is a modern 20th century mythological figure from the novella ''Gradiva (novel), Gradiva'' by Wilhelm Jensen. The figure was inspired by a real Roman Empire, Roman relief. Origins ''Gradiva'' was given ...

'' by

Wilhelm Jensen Wilhelm Hermann Jensen (15 February 183724 November 1911) was a German writer and poet. Biography Wilhelm Jensen was born at Heiligenhafen in the Duchy of Holstein (now Germany), the illegitimate son of Swenn Hans Jensen (1795–1855), the May ...

. The figure was inspired by a real

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

Origins

''Gradiva'' was given her name by Wilhelm Jensen's novella of the same name. In the novella, the protagonist is fascinated by a female figure in an antcient relief and names her "Gradiva" after

Mars Gradivus In ancient Roman religion and myth, Mars ( la, Mārs, ) was the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military g ...

, the Roman god of war walking into battle.

Description

The actual relief was described by Hauser as a

neo-Attic Neo-Attic or Atticizing is a sculptural style, beginning in Hellenistic sculpture and vase-painting of the 2nd century BC and climaxing in Roman art of the 2nd century AD, copying, adapting or closely following the style shown in reliefs and stat ...

Roman relief probably after a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

original from the fourth century BCE. It shows in its complete state the three Agraulides sisters, Herse,

Pandrosus Pandrosos or Pandrosus (Ancient Greek: Πάνδροσος) was known in Greek myth as one of the three daughters of Kekrops, the first king of Athens, and Aglaurus, daughter of King Actaeus. Family Pandrosus' two sisters were Aglauros and ...

and Aglaulos, deities of the dew. Hauser reconstructed the Agraulid-relief from fragments scattered over various museum collections. The Gradiva fragment is held in the collection of the Vatican Museum Chiaramonti,

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, and its complement is held in the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

Adaptions

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in ...

used the name "Gradiva" as a nickname for his wife, Gala Dalí. He used the figure of Gradiva in a number of his paintings, including ''Gradiva encuentra las ruinas de Antropomorphos (Gradiva finds the ruins of Antropomorphos)''. The figure Gradiva was also used in other Surrealist paintings. ''Gradiva (Metamorphosis of Gradiva)'', 1939, by

André Masson André-Aimé-René Masson (4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist. Biography Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to Brussel ...

, explores the sexual iconography of the character. Gradiva, 'the woman who walks through walls' is the

muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

of Surrealism. In 1937, the

Surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

writer André Breton opened an art gallery on the

Rive Gauche The Rive Gauche (, ''Left Bank'') is the southern bank of the river Seine in Paris. Here the river flows roughly westward, cutting the city in two parts. When facing downstream, the southern bank is to the left, and the northern bank (or ''Rive D ...

, 31 rue de Seine, christening it with the title ''Gradiva''.

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

designed it, giving its door the form of a double cast shadow. The short artfilm ''Gradiva Sketch 1'' (1978, camera:

Bruno Nuytten Bruno Nuytten (born 28 August 1945) is a French cinematographer turned director. ''Camille Claudel'' which was Nuytten's first directorial and screenwriting effort, won the César Award for Best film in 1989. The film starred and was co-produced ...

) by the French cinéaste Raymonde Carasco was described as “a poetic construction about the fetishization of desire, one that seems to go against Freud's reading: the gracious movement of the maiden's foot is seen to be the object itself, not a mere referent, of male desire.” In 1986, the French surrealist writer and

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

Michel Leiris Julien Michel Leiris (; 20 April 1901 in Paris – 30 September 1990 in Saint-Hilaire, Essonne) was a French surrealist writer and ethnographer. Part of the Surrealist group in Paris, Leiris became a key member of the College of Sociology with ...

, together with Jean Jamin, founded '' Gradhiva'', a journal of

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

. Since 2005 it has been published by the Musée du quai Branly in Paris.

Notes

External links

* {{Commons-inline, Gradiva, Gradiva
Gradiva - Chiaramonti Museum, Rome

Gradiva - Freud-Museum, London
* Freud Museum Exhibition Archive: '
Gradiva: The Cure Through Love

*DailyArt Magazine
Gradiva: What did Freud and the Surrealists See in Her?
Neo-Attic sculptures Sculptures of the Vatican Museums 4th-century BC sculptures