Athena in Gold

Greek Mythology Art in Gold

Turned to the left in sharp profile, a marble Athena wears a gilded crested helmet, holds a long spear across her body and carries a small owl on her shoulder.

Read more +

Made for a study, a library corner or an office, it looks commanding above a desk or bookcase on charcoal, deep green, navy or stone walls.

Digital downloadPrinted & framed →

Personal€9.99For your home & giftsCommercial€99.99Hotel, clinic, office, café

Buy · €9.99 Order it printedFine-art print, framed, canvas, puzzle or mug · from €39 · free delivery in the EU→

Printable digital download, around 9,000 px on the long edge
Samsung Frame TV version included (3840 × 2160)
Signed licence certificate (PDF) — see it
Sent by e-mail the moment you pay — nothing is shipped

Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay

Not sure yet? Take one work home free →
Over 180 pieces with my designs already sold on Displate, Fine Art America and Redbubble →

Prefer it printed & framed?Fine-art print, framed or canvas · from €39→See it on your wall

Details

Printable digital download, around 9,000 px on the long edge
The commercial licence covers hotels, offices, restaurants and public spaces
Print it yourself at any size, on metal, acrylic, glass or fine-art paper

On a Samsung Frame TV

Every download also includes a 3840 × 2160 file made for the Samsung Frame and other art-mode TVs: the whole work, uncropped, on a quiet mat in a colour taken from the picture. Send it to the TV with the SmartThings app and show it in Art Mode. All Frame TV art →

Athena in Gold — Samsung Frame TV art, 3840 × 2160

How large can I print it?

The file is around 9,000 px on the long edge. That prints crisply to about 75 cm on the long edge at gallery quality, and to 130–170 cm at the distance you look at a picture over furniture. Sizes, paper and framing, in detail →

Which paper or surface?

Gold on dark grounds wants a matte or satin fine-art paper (200–310 gsm), or aluminium for humid rooms; glossy photo paper turns the black into a mirror. The pale works also take satin and baryta papers.

Which licence do I need?

Personal (€9.99) covers your own home and gifts. Any business or space open to the public — a spa, clinic, hotel, office, restaurant — needs the commercial licence (€99.99, one venue, no renewal). The venue guide →

How big, and how high, on my wall?

Width of the furniture beneath divided by 1.618; centre of the picture at 150 cm from the floor. How to hang wall art using the golden ratio →

About this work

The light comes from the side, so half of the goddess glows while the rest falls away into black, which makes her profile as crisp as the head on a coin. The eye goes first to the gilded helmet, its crest rising high over her head, then follows the long spear that cuts diagonally across her body and gives the picture its energy. The small owl on her shoulder is easy to miss at first and becomes the detail people point out once they have found it. Below, the white marble robes fall in heavy folds, and gold leaf details at the waist repeat the shine of the helmet. Close up you notice the modelling of each fold and the ornament on the helmet; from further away the figure becomes a strong white silhouette on black, calm, watchful and very upright.

In Greek myth Athena was the goddess of wisdom, crafts and war, and the owl was her bird. The link was so strong that Athens, the city that honoured her as its patron, put an owl on its silver coins: from the late sixth century BC the tetradrachm showed Athena's helmeted head on one side and an owl on the other, and people simply called the coins owls. The playwright Aristophanes even used the phrase bringing owls to Athens for something pointless, much like carrying coals to Newcastle in English. Our statue is an imagined figure, not a reproduction of a known sculpture, and the gold leaf on it is RAGANA's own addition.

Hang it beside Poseidon in Gold and two old rivals share the wall, since in the myth they competed for the city of Athens. For a scholarly wall, The Golden Zodiac adds an antique star atlas in gold on navy. Dark walls suit Athena best: charcoal, ink blue, forest green or deep stone grey make the marble look brighter. A slim black frame keeps the look classical, while a thin gold one picks up the helmet. Choose a black or an off-white mat, depending on how much contrast you want, and light it from above. Printed from the 7168 × 10752 px file, it stays sharp to about 60 × 90 cm. A Frame TV version with a gallery mat is part of the download.

Athena in Gold

About this work

More from Greek Mythology Wall Art in Gold