Spain Banknotes 1 Peseta banknote 1937 Nike of Samothrace
Bank of Spain - Banco de España
Obverse: The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace and Coat of arms of the Second Spanish Republic.
Reverse: Cibeles Fountain, Madrid.
Printer: Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre, Madrid.
Size: 92 x 52 mm. In circulation from 18 January 1938.
Spain Banknotes - Spain Paper Money
Second Spanish Republic - Segunda República Española
Ministerio de Hacienda
1937-1938 Issue
Ministerio de Hacienda
1937-1938 Issue
50 Centimos 1 Peseta 2 Pesetas
Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace
The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, is a 2nd-century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory). Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre and is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world. H.W. Janson described it as "the greatest masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture."
The Winged Victory of Samothrace, discovered in 1863, is estimated to have been created around 200–190 BC. It is 8 feet (2.44 metres) high. It was created to not only honor the goddess, Nike, but to honor a sea battle. It conveys a sense of action and triumph as well as portraying artful flowing drapery, as though the goddess was descending to alight upon the prow of a ship.
Modern excavations suggest that the Victory occupied a niche above a theater and also suggest it accompanied an altar that was within view of the ship monument of Demetrius I Poliorcetes (337–283 BC). Rendered in grey and white Thasian and Parian marble, the figure originally formed part of the Samothrace temple complex dedicated to the Great gods, Megaloi Theoi. It stood on a rostral pedestal of gray marble from Lartos representing the prow of a ship (most likely a trihemiolia), and represents the goddess as she descends from the skies to the triumphant fleet. Before she lost her arms, which have never been recovered, Nike's right arm is believed to have been raised, cupped round her mouth to deliver the shout of Victory. The work is notable for its convincing rendering of a pose where violent motion and sudden stillness meet, for its graceful balance and for the rendering of the figure's draped garments, compellingly depicted as if rippling in a strong sea breeze. Similar traits can be seen in the Laocoön group which is a reworked copy of a lost original that was likely close both in time and place of origin to Nike, but while Laocoon, vastly admired by Renaissance and classicist artists, has come to be seen as a more self-conscious and contrived work, Nike of Samothrace is seen as an iconic depiction of triumphant spirit and of the divine momentarily coming face to face with man. It is possible, however, that the power of the work is enhanced by the very fact the head is missing.
The statue’s outstretched right wing is a symmetric plaster version of the original left one. As with the arms, the figure's head has never been found, but various other fragments have since been found: in 1950, a team led by Karl Lehmann unearthed the missing right hand of the Louvre's Winged Victory. The fingerless hand had slid out of sight under a large rock, near where the statue had originally stood; on the return trip home, Dr Phyllis Williams Lehmann identified the tip of the Goddess's ring finger and her thumb in a storage drawer at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, where the second Winged Victory is displayed; the fragments have been reunited with the hand, which is now in a glass case in the Louvre next to the podium on which the statue stands.
The different degree of finishing of the sides has led scholars to think that it was intended to be seen from three-quarters on the left.
A partial inscription on the base of the statue includes the word "Rhodios" (Rhodian), indicating that the statue was commissioned to celebrate a naval victory by Rhodes, at that time the most powerful maritime state in the Aegean which in itself would date the statue to 288 BC at the earliest.
Cibeles Fountain
The fountain of Cybele is found in the part of Madrid commonly called the Paseo de Recoletos. This fountain is named after Cybele, a Phrygian goddess who had a significant cult in Rome, and is seen as one of Madrid's most important symbols. The fountain depicts the goddess, sitting on a chariot pulled by two lions. The fountain was built in the reign of Charles III and designed by Ventura Rodríguez between 1777 and 1782. The goddess and chariot are the work of Francisco Gutiérrez and the lions by Roberto Michel. The fountain originally stood next to the Buenavista Palace, and was moved to its present location in the middle of the square in the late 19th century. Up until the 19th century both the fountain of Neptune and Cybele looked directly at each other, until the city council decided to turn them round to face towards the centre of the city.
On one side of the fountain of Cybele, the Paseo de Recoletos starts, heading north to link up with the Paseo de la Castellana. On the other side, the Paseo del Prado begins and heads off south, towards the fountain of Neptune, in the Plaza de Cánovas del Castillo, and on until Atocha. Calle de Alcalá is the street which intersects the fountain from east to west. Calle de Alcalá starts in the Puerta del Sol and continues on to the outskirts of Madrid.
The fountain of Cybele has been adopted by the football club Real Madrid, whose fans use the area to celebrate its triumphs in competitions such as La Liga, the Champions League or the Copa del Rey. A flag of Real Madrid is usually wrapped around the Cybele statue.
Coat of arms of the Second Spanish Republic
The Coat of arms of the Second Spanish Republic was the emblem of the Second Spanish Republic, the democratic government that existed in Spain between April 14, 1931, when King Alfonso XIII left the country, and April 1, 1939, when the last of the Republican forces surrendered to Francoist forces at the end of the Spanish Civil War.
The National flag of the Second Spanish Republic would have the coat of arms in the middle of the central yellow band. There was no coat of arms in the Spanish Republican Civil Ensign.
The Provisional Government of 1868 had adopted the following coat of arms: quarterly of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Navarre enté en point of Granada. The crown was a mural crown instead of the royal crown.
The Spanish Republic established in 1931 revived the coat of arms of the First Spanish Republic (1873–1874) which had originated in turn in the revision of Spanish symbols that followed the Glorious Revolution (Spain) of 1868. The only exception was that the lion of the second quarter was depicted uncrowned.
The coat of arms of the Second Spanish Republic was flanked by the two Pillars of Hercules bearing scrolls with the motto Plus Ultra (Latin for further beyond). The color of the scrolls is usually white, but there is a high proportion of representations displaying the red color.