Gradiva
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Gradiva, or "She who steps along", is a mythic figure created by Wilhelm Jensen as a central character in his novella Gradiva (1902).[1] The character was inspired by an existing Roman relief. She later became a prominent subject in Surrealist art after Sigmund Freud published an essay on Jensen's work.
The character first appeared in Wilhelm Jensen's eponymous novella Gradiva. In the novella, the protagonist is fascinated by a female figure in an ancient relief and names her Gradiva, Latin for "she who steps along".[2][3] The name is also believed to be an homage to Mars Gradivus, the Roman god of war.[1]
Early after Gradiva's publication, psychoanalyst Carl Jung recommended the novella to his colleague Sigmund Freud.[4][2] Freud found the narrative compelling, and published his influential essay titled Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva (German: "Der Wahn und die Träume in W. Jensen's Gradiva") in 1907.[5] Afterwards, he exchanged a few letters with Jensen, who was "flattered by Freud's analysis of his story".[2]
Description
The relief is a neo-Attic Roman relief, which is likely a copy of a Greek original from the 4th century BCE.[6] The full relief has three female figures identified as the so called Horae and Agraulids: Herse, Pandrosus and Aglaulos.[7] The relief was reconstructed by archaeologist Friedrich Hauser from fragments found in multiple separate museum collections.[4]
The Gradiva fragment is held in the collection of the Vatican Museum Chiaramonti, Rome.[8] The rest of the relief is on display in the Uffizi Museum in Florence.[5]
