The Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheion, Athens, 421–407 BCE

Caryatids at the Austrian Parliament building, Vienna

Late Baroque caryatid and atlantid hemi-figures at Sanssouci, Frederick the Great's schloss at Potsdam

A caryatid (also spelt Karyatid), is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3519x2345, 1671 KB) Summary A picture of the Porch of Maidens. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3519x2345, 1671 KB) Summary A picture of the Porch of Maidens. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 336 KB) Summary Photo by User: Adam Carr, May 2006 Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1600x1200, 336 KB) Summary Photo by User: Adam Carr, May 2006 Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2233x1674, 842 KB) from de: by Benutzer:Suse - selbst fotografiert, Januar 2005 Bronze letters SANS SOUCI at Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany File links The following pages link to this file: Sanssouci User:Trebor27trebor Sanssouci translation Metadata This file contains additional information, probably... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2233x1674, 842 KB) from de: by Benutzer:Suse - selbst fotografiert, Januar 2005 Bronze letters SANS SOUCI at Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany File links The following pages link to this file: Sanssouci User:Trebor27trebor Sanssouci translation Metadata This file contains additional information, probably... The South or Garden facade and corps de logis of Sanssouci Sanssouci is a palace in Potsdam, Germany. ... Frederick the Great Frederick II of Prussia (Friedrich der Große, Frederick the Great, January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was the Hohenzollern king of Prussia 1740–86. ... Deconstructing a Roman pillar. ... Look up pillar in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An entablature is a classical architectural element, the superstructure which lies horizontally above the columns, resting on their capitals. ...

Some of the earliest known examples were found in the treasuries of Delphi, dating to about the 6th century BC, but their use as supports in the form of female figures can be traced back even farther, to ritual basins, ivory mirror handles from Phoenicia, and draped figures from archaic Greece. The best-known and most-copied examples are those of the six figures of the Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis at Athens (illustration, right). The amphitheatre, seen from above. ... (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) The 6th century BC started on January 1, 600 BC and ended on December 31, 501 BC. // Overview Monument 1, an Olmec colossal head at La Venta The 5th and 6th centuries BC were a time of empires, but more importantly, a... Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plains of what is now Lebanon. ... A porch is an architectural feature relating to a floor-like platform structure attached to the front or back entrance of a residence. ... Erechtheum, from SW The Erechtheum, or Erecththeion, is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens in Greece, notable for a design that is both elegant and unusual. ... The Acropolis of Athens, seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ...

One of those original six figures, removed by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s, is now in the British Museum in London. The other five figures, although they are damaged by erosion, are in the Acropolis Museum. The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2000 to become the Great Court, with a tessellated glass roof by Foster and Partners surrounding the original Reading Room. ...

The Romans also copied the Erechtheion caryatids, installing copies in the Forum of Augustus and the Pantheon in Rome, and Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed. ... Forum built by Augustus in Rome, including Temple of Mars Ultor. ... The Pantheon, Rome, in front of which stands the obelisk Macuteo, one of fourteen ancient Egyptian obelisks in Rome. ... This article is about the capital of Italy. ... The villas recreation of Canopus, a resort near Alexandria, as seen from the temple of Serapis Theatrical masks of Tragedy and Comedy in refined mosaic, from the villa (Capitoline Museum, Rome) The Villa of the Emperor Hadrian at Tivoli, Italy, even in ruined condition is one of the most... Tivoli, the classical Tibur, is an ancient Italian town in Lazio, some 20 km from Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river, where it issues from the Sabine hills. ...

In modern times, the practice of integrating caryatids into building facades was revived in the later 16th century and, from the examples engraved for Sebastiano Serlio's treatise on architecture, became a fixture in the decorative vocabulary of Northern Mannerism expressed by the Fontainebleau School and the engravers of designs in Antwerp. Caryatids remained part of the German Baroque vocabulary (illustration, right) and were refashioned in more restrained and "Grecian" forms by neoclassical architects and designers. In the early 17th century interior examples appear in Europe, such as the overmantle in the great hall of Muchalls Castle in Scotland. In exterior architecture, among the most famous examples is the copy of the porch on the 1822 Saint Pancras Church in London, which includes four terra cotta figures, and the many caryatids lined up on the facade of the 1893 Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. In the arts of design, the draped figure supporting an acanthus-grown basket capital taking the form of a candlestick or a table-support is a familiar cliché of neoclassical decorative arts. (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Sebastiano Serlio (Bologna 1475 – Fontainebleau ca 1554), the Italian Mannerist architect, was part of the Italian team building Fontainebleau. ... Mannerism is the term used to describe the artistic style that arose in mid-16th century. ... Diane the Huntress - School of Fontainebleau (1550-60) (Louvre) The Ecole de Fontainebleau refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered around the royal Château of Fontainebleau. ... The Cathedral of our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, Antwerp) in the Handschoenmarkt, in the old quarter of Antwerp is the largest cathedral in the Low Countries and home to several triptychs by Baroque painter Rubens. ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... World map showing Europe Political map Europe is one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... A great hall was the main room of a royal palace, a noblemans castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages, and in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. ... Muchalls Castle, Kincardineshire Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of historic Kincardineshire, Scotland. ... Motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within Europe Scotlands location within the United Kingdom Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 km² 1. ... The Museum of Science and Industry is housed in the only surviving building from the 1893 World Columbian Exposition and is a National Historic Landmark. ...

The origins of the term are unclear. It is first recorded in the Latin form caryatides by the Roman architect Vitruvius. He stated in his 1st century BC work De architectura that the female figures of the Erechtheion represented the punishment of the women of Caryae (Greek Karyiai), a town near Sparta in Laconia, who were condemned to slavery after betraying Athens by siding with Persia in the Greco-Persian Wars. The Greek term karuatides literally means "maidens of Karuai" or Caryae. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He was the author of De architectura, known today as The Ten Books of Architecture, a treatise in Latin on architecture, and perhaps the first work about this discipline. ... (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) The 1st century BC started on January 1, 100 BC and ended on December 31, 1 BC. An alternative name for this century is the last century BC. The AD/BC notation does not use a year zero. ... De architectūra (Latin: On architecture) was a treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus. ... Sparta (Doric: Σπάρτα, Attic: Σπάρτη) is a city in southern Greece. ... Laconia (Λακωνία; see also List of traditional Greek place names), also known as Lacedaemonia, was in ancient Greece the portion of the Peloponnesus of which the most important city was Sparta. ... Athens (Greek: Αθήνα, Athína IPA: ) is the capital of Greece and one of the most famous cities in the world, named after goddess Athena. ... Combatants Greek city states, particularly Athens and Sparta Persian Empire Commanders Miltiades Themistocles Leonidas I Pausanias Kimon Pericles Mardonius Datis Artaphernes Xerxes I Megabyzus The Greco-Persian Wars or Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Greek city-states and the Persian Empire that started about 500 BC...

However, Vitruvius' explanation is doubtful; well before the Persian Wars, female figures were used as decorative supports in Greece and the ancient Near East. Karyai had a famous temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis in her aspect of Artemis Karyatis: "As Karyatis she rejoiced in the dances of the nut-tree village of Karyai, those Karyatides who in their ecstatic round-dance carried on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants" (Kerenyi 1980 p 149). The Artemis of Versailles, a Roman copy of a Hellenistic marble sculpture, now at the Louvre Museum. ...

A caryatid supporting a basket on her head is called a canephora, representing one of the maidens who carried sacred objects used at feasts of the gods. The Erectheion caryatids, in a shrine dedicated to an archaic king of Athens, may therefore represent priestesses of Artemis in a place named for the "nut-tree sisterhood" – apparently in Mycenaean times, like other plural feminine toponyms, such as Hyrai or Athens itself. Mycenaean can have the following meanings: coming from or belonging to the ancient town of Mycenae in Pelloponese in Greece; belonging to the culture of the Mycenaean period of the eastern Mediterranean in the late Bronze Age; the Mycenaean language, an ancient form of Greek, known from inscriptions in Linear... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

The male counterpart of a caryatid is referred to as a telemon or Atlas (plural, atlantes) – the name refers to the legend of Atlas, who bore the world on his shoulders. Such figures were used on a monumental scale, notably in the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Agrigento, Sicily. Atlantes in eclectic style, KanaÅ‚owa Str. ... In Greek mythology, Atlas was one of the primordial Titans. ... Agrigento (formerly Girgenti) is the name of a town on the southern coast of Italy, capital of the province of Agrigento. ... Sicilian redirects here. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Caryatid

• Artemis at Pantheon.org
• Kerényi, Karl (1951) 1980. The Gods of the Greeks (Thames & Hudson)