Amphitrite

The desire to transcend the boundaries between different art forms had led Klinger to sculpture. He returned from a visit to the Greek island of Syros with an old marble step from which he planned to sculpt a half-length figure; it was only while he was working that he decided to add the draped legs. The idea of calling her after the Greek sea-goddess, “the one surrounded by sea,” may have come from the provenance of the stone. Contemporaries explained that the arms were missing because of the original dimensions of the stone, however there are other examples of Klinger’s interest in the problems of the human torso, and in this he comes close to the pioneers of modernism. However, this emphasis on form and material runs contradictory to the lifelike, subtly naturalistic treatment of the flesh and the light, flowing draperies here — all the more so since Klinger replaces the physical ideals of classical sculpture with the features of a contemporary town-dweller.