what do the caryatids represent

What is the purpose of a caryatid?

A caryatid (/ˌkæriˈætɪd/ KARR-ee-AT-id; Greek: Καρυάτις, plural: Καρυάτιδες) 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.

What does caryatid mean in Greek?

Caryatid. A caryatid ( /ˌkæriˈætɪd/ KARR-ee-AT-id; Greek: Καρυάτις, plural: Καρυάτιδες) 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. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai ", an ancient town of Peloponnese.

What are the caryatids of Greece?

The Caryatids of Greece The caryatids, Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens. Caryatids are draped, sculpted female figures, supportive Goddesses so to speak, used as decorative support in place of columns or pillars, called in Greek Karyatides. The most famous caryatids of Greece stand guard over the Erechtheion of the Acropolis, Athens.

What is the story of the caryatids?

Caryatid. According to a story related by the 1st-century- bc Roman architectural writer Vitruvius, caryatids represented the women of Caryae, who were doomed to hard labour because the town sided with the Persians in 480 bc during their second invasion of Greece.

What was the purpose of using Caryatids in the Erechtheion?

Thus, in their edifices, did the antient architects, by the use of these statues, hand down to posterity a memorial of the crime of the Caryans." Caryatids are female figures that serve as the architectural support for the entablature of a building. The Greeks called these supporting figures korai, maidens.

What are the Caryatids of Erechtheion?

The caryatid This caryatid is one of six elegant female figures who supported the roof of the south porch of the Erechtheion (figures who do the work of columns—carrying a roof—are called caryatids). The figure wears a garment pinned on the shoulders (this is a peplos—a kind of garment worn by women in ancient Greece).

Are Caryatids always female?

A caryatid (/ˌkæriˈætɪd/ KARR-ee-AT-id; Ancient Greek: Καρυάτις, pl. Καρυάτιδες) 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.

Where are the Caryatids?

the Acropolis MuseumThe six replica Caryatids hold up the roof of the temple on the Acropolis. The originals are housed in the Acropolis Museum in Athens. The Caryatids at the Acropolis Museum.

What are the Caryatids made of?

The caryatids stand 2,27 meters (7.5 feet) and are made of the best Greek marble, Pentelic. Like early Korai figures of archaic Greece, these women stand tall and straight.

Which temple contains the Caryatids and what are they?

The Erechtheion It was built on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, circa 430–405 BCE. The Erechtheion is an Ionic temple which features Caryatids; large statues of women that serve as pillars supporting part of the roof.

What is the significance of the porch of the Caryatids?

Caryatid porch of the Erechtheum, on the Acropolis at Athens. Caryatids are sometimes called korai (“maidens”). Similar figures, bearing baskets on their heads, are called canephores (from kanēphoroi, “basket carriers”); they represent the maidens who carried sacred objects used at feasts of the gods.

How many Caryatids are there?

The five caryatids are displayed, with a place ready and waiting for their sixth sister, should she return home from London.

How old are the Caryatids?

Built in the 5th century BC, the Erechtheion and the caryatids have been copied over and over again, from ancient Rome to London and modern-day Chicago. Those caryatids we see on the Acropolis today are replicas.

When were the Caryatids moved?

In 2007 the five Caryatids remaining in Athens were moved from the Old Acropolis Museum, located on the eastern end of the summit of the hill, to their current home on the first floor of the New Acropolis Museum.

Who built the Caryatids of the Erechtheion?

The most famous Caryatids are the six which support the roof of the false south porch of the Erechtheion on the Athenian acropolis. This building was constructed between 421 and 406 BCE as part of Pericles' great project to rejuvenate the architecture of the great city.

What are female Greek statues called?

Kore (Greek: κόρη "maiden"; plural korai) is the modern term given to a type of free-standing ancient Greek sculpture of the Archaic period depicting female figures, always of a young age.

Who built the Caryatids of the Erechtheion?

The most famous Caryatids are the six which support the roof of the false south porch of the Erechtheion on the Athenian acropolis. This building was constructed between 421 and 406 BCE as part of Pericles' great project to rejuvenate the architecture of the great city.

What was the Erechtheion made out of?

Pentelic marbleAs with the other new buildings on the acropolis, the Erechtheion was built from Pentelic marble which came from the nearby Mt. Pentelicus and was celebrated for its pure white appearance and fine grain.

What was polykleitos known for?

Polyclitus, also spelled Polycleitus or Polykleitos, (flourished c. 450–415 bce), Greek sculptor from the school of Árgos, known for his masterly bronze sculptures of young athletes; he was also one of the most significant aestheticians in the history of art.

What are the narratives on the pediments of the Parthenon?

The east pediment depicted the birth of Athena (which connects nicely with the frieze's depiction of the Panathenaic Festival held on the goddess' birthday), whilst the west pediment showed the competition between Athena and Poseidon to become the patron of Athens, the former offering the Athenians a salty spring, the ...

What is a caryatid?

Καρυάτιδες) 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. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai ", an ancient town on the Peloponnese. Karyai had a 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".

What are some examples of caryatids?

Early interior examples are the figures of Heracles and Iole carved on the jambs of a monumental fireplace in the Sala della Jole of the Doge's Palace, Venice, about 1450. In the following century Jacopo Sansovino, both sculptor and architect, carved a pair of female figures supporting the shelf of a marble chimneypiece at Villa Garzoni, near Padua. No architect mentioned the device until 1615, when Palladio 's pupil Vincenzo Scamozzi included a chapter devoted to chimneypieces in his Idea della archittura universale. Those in the apartments of princes and important personages, he considered, might be grand enough for chimneypieces with caryatid supporters, such as one he illustrated and a similar one he installed in the Sala dell'Anticollegio, also in the Doge's Palace.

What is the origin of Caryae?

Whatever the origin may have been, the association of caryatids with slavery persists and is prevalent in Renaissance art. The ancient Caryae supposedly was one of the six adjacent villages that united to form the original township of Sparta, and the hometown of Menelaos ' queen, Helen of Troy.

What is the meaning of the erectheion caryatids?

The Erectheion caryatids, in a shrine dedicated to an archaic king of Athens, may therefore represent priestesses of Artemis in Caryae, a place named for the "nut-tree sisterhood" – apparently in Mycenaean times, like other plural feminine toponyms, such as Hyrai or Athens itself.

How many Caryatids are there?

Although of the same height and build, and similarly attired and coiffed, the six Caryatids are not the same: their faces, stance, draping, and hair are carved separately; the three on the left stand on their right foot, while the three on the right stand on their left foot.

Where is the Caryatid porch?

Load-bearing pillar in the figure of a human being, Ancient Greece and later. The Caryatid porch of the Erechtheion in Athens, Greece. A caryatid from the Erechtheion, standing in contrapposto, displayed at the British Museum.

Where did the term "caryatid" come from?

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 (I.1.5) that the female figures of the Erechtheion represented the punishment of the women of Caryae, a town near Sparta in Laconia, who were condemned to slavery after betraying Athens by siding with Persia in the Greco-Persian Wars. However, Vitruvius' explanation is doubtful; well before the Persian Wars, female figures were used as decorative supports in Greece and the ancient Near East. Whatever the origin may have been, the association of caryatids with slavery persists and is prevalent in Renaissance art.

What are the Caryatids?

The caryatids, Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens. Caryatids are draped, sculpted female figures, supportive Goddesses so to speak, used as decorative support in place of columns or pillars, called in Greek Karyatides. The most famous caryatids of Greece stand guard over the Erechtheion of the Acropolis, Athens.

What were the Caryatids called?

The caryatids were known, in Ladino, (the Judeo Spanish language of Sepherdic Jews), as Las Incantadas, by the Christians as The Enchanted and in Greek, The Magemenes. The place in which they were situated was known as ‘The Arcade of the Idols’ by Christians and ‘Suret Maleh (the angel figures) by the Ottomans.

Where is the Porch of the Caryatids?

On the south side of the Erechtheion is The Porch of the Caryatids, or, The Porch of the Maidens, where the most sacred relic of Athens was housed, the Palladium, a olive wood effigy of the Goddess Pallas Athena, said not to have been made by human hand, but to have miraculously fallen from heaven. Caryatids Erechtheion Acropolis Athens.

What is the name of the Titan god who was forced to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders for all eternity

The male equivalent of the caryatids, which came into use many years after their female counterparts, are known as Atlas or Atlantes, after the Titan God Atlas, who was forced to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders for all eternity.

Where is Caryatis now?

Sadly, while plundering the Acropolis from 1801 to 1805, Lord Elgin removed one of these sacred sisters and she now stands alone in the British museum London, with the rest of the looted Parthenon Marbles. Caryatis taken by Lord Elgin now in British museum.

Who painted the house with the caryatids?

The house with the caryatids – 45 Agion Asomaton Street Athens 1953 – By Henri Cartier-Bresson. Henri Cartier-Bresson’ s iconic photograph of ‘The House with the Caryatids’ set the pace, and the small house, it’s balcony decorated with a couple of caryatids, has now been photographed many times over.

Who wrote the book The Caryatids of Thessaloniki?

The Caryatids of Thessaloniki. Until I read, (twice actually it was so good), ‘Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430 – 1950’ by Mark Mazower , an ‘unputdownable’ book, I knew nothing of the sad story of the caryatids of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, up in the north.

Overview

Etymology

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 (I.1.5) that the female figures of the Erechtheion represented the punishment of the women of Caryae, a town near Sparta in Laconia, who were condemned to slavery after betraying Athens by siding with Persia in the Greco-Persian Wars. However, Vitruvius' explanation is doubtful; well before the Persian Wars, f…

Ancient usage

Renaissance and after

See also

External links