The ''Gradiva, The woman who walks,'' is a modern 20th century mythological figure from the novella ''
Gradiva'' by
Wilhelm Jensen. The figure was inspired by a real
Roman relief.
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 go ...
, the Roman god of war walking into battle.
Description
The actual relief was described by Hauser as a
neo-Attic Roman relief probably after a
Greek 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 He ...
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, and its complement is held in the
Uffizi in
Florence.
Adaptions
Salvador Dalí used the name "Gradiva" as a nickname for his wife,
Gala Dalí
Gala Dalí (born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, Елéна Ивáновна Дья́конова; – 10 June 1982), usually known simply as Gala, was the wife of poet Paul Éluard and later of artist Salvador Dalí, who were both prominent in ...
. 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
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 l ...
. ''Gradiva (Metamorphosis of Gradiva)'', 1939, by
André Masson, explores the sexual iconography of the character. Gradiva, 'the woman who walks through walls' is the
muse of Surrealism.
In 1937, the
Surrealist writer
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...
opened an art gallery on the
Rive Gauche, 31 rue de Seine, christening it with the title ''Gradiva''.
Marcel Duchamp designed it, giving its door the form of a double cast shadow.
The short artfilm ''Gradiva Sketch 1'' (1978, camera:
Bruno Nuytten) by the French cinéaste
Raymonde Carasco
Raymonde is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Raymonde Allain (1912–2008), French model and actress
*Raymonde April, OC (born 1953), Canadian contemporary artist, photographer and academic
*Raymonde Arsen née Vital, servant ...
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 Michel Leiris, together with
Jean Jamin
Jean Jamin (26 April 1945 – 21 January 2022) was a French ethnologist and anthropologist. Director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, he taught ethnology there from 1993 to 2016. He directed the journal '' L'H ...
, founded ''
Gradhiva
''Gradhiva'' is an anthropological and museological journal, founded in 1986 by the poet and social scientist Michel Leiris and by the anthropologist Jean Jamin. Since 2005, it has been published by the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.
Referenc ...
'', a journal of
anthropology. Since 2005 it has been published by the
Musée du quai Branly in Paris.
Notes
External links
* {{Commons-inline, Gradiva, Gradiva
Gradiva - Chiaramonti Museum, RomeGradiva - 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