The Fury or The Tempest, 1903

The neoclassicist education of Georgios Vroutos, as well as the admiration he felt for the work of neoclassicist sculptors and particularly that of Antonio Canova, is apparent throughout his artistic career. This admiration can also be confirmed in the case of “The Fury”. Though a distant model can be seen in the ancient Greek “Nike” by Paionios, a more direct and unambiguous model is “Hebe” (1796-1817) by Antonio Canova.

Vroutos made the work in two copies. In both instances the woman has a furious expression and wings spread in a violent movement, creating the impression that she is practically on top of the waves, while the ancient-style garment, which is fluttering, leaves the body almost completely naked. Snakes are coiled in her hair, an element which connects her to the ancient Greek Furies which are identified with remorse. Their mysterious voices reputedly gnawed at the soul and the mind and caused powerful inner disturbances. The difference is that in the one copy the woman is holding a trident in her raised hand and a lightning bolt in the other, while at her feet is a boat which is sinking in the waves, an event identifying her with the figure of the Tempest. In the copy on exhibit at the National Glyptotheque, conversely, the figure is more likely to be identified with the Fury, since the trident and the lightning bolt do not exist while the woman flies above the waves without the boat being depicted.