where are the original caryatids from the south porch of the erechtheion

Full Answer

Where are the original caryatid porches now?

The Caryatid porch of the Erechtheion in Athens, Greece. These are now replicas. The originals are in the Acropolis Museum (with one in the British Museum ).

What are the caryatids in the Erechtheion?

Source: Getty Constructed between 421-405 BCE, the six Caryatids adorn the southern porch (also referred to as Porch of the Maidens) of the Erechtheion, and serve as structural and architectural support in place of the typical columns.

What is a caryatid in ancient Greece?

Caryatids of Erechtheion A Caryatid is a name given to a column in the form of a standing female figure. The most famous Caryatids are from the Erechtheion on the Acropolis of Athens. The Erechtheion is a marble temple building in the Ionic order and was considered the most sacred part of the Acropolis.

What is the Erechtheion in Athens?

The Erechtheion is a marble temple building in the Ionic order and was considered the most sacred part of the Acropolis. At the south porch of the Erechtheion, the roof was supported by six statues of maidens known as the Caryatids.

Where Are The original 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.

Does the Erechtheion have Caryatids?

On the high stylobate of the south porch of the Erechtheion are six maidens, who take the place of columns in supporting the entablature. Now severely weathered and affected by pollution, five of the caryatids were removed to the Acropolis Museum in 1978 and replaced with replicas.

What happened to the Caryatids?

The Caryatids of Erectheion were replaced by the Greek government with replicas, to protect the originals from the pollution of the city. The original Caryatids are now exhibited in the new Acropolis Museum, with one empty space for the return of their sister from the British Museum.

Who are the Caryatids of the 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 Greek or Roman?

GreekA technical term of Greek architecture. Caryatides were female statues clothed in long drapery, used instead of shafts, or columns, to support the entablature of a temple (see cut). The name properly means "maidens of Caryae (Karyai)," a Spartan town on the Arcadian frontier.

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.

Is the Erechtheion still standing?

The Erechtheion was built 2,425 years ago, and still has a lot of its structure standing today. The building has been through fires, battles, weather, and many years of history. The timeline and important dates below show all that the Erechtheion went through, and managed to still stay standing today.

What happened to the statue of Zeus on Kefalonia?

Zeus sat on a painted cedarwood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stones. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The statue was lost and destroyed during the 5th century AD; details of its form are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins.

How old are the Caryatids?

Caryatids, those sculpted female bodies that stand in for a supporting columns, have a glamorous architectural pedigree – stretching back at least three thousand or so years.

What does the word Erechtheion mean?

n. (Placename) a temple on the Acropolis at Athens, which has a porch of caryatids.

What are male Caryatids called?

A Caryatid is a female figure used as an architectural support in place of a pillar. The male equivalent is an Atlantes, and these too are covered on this page – though the female is much the more common.

What God was the Erechtheion built for?

The Erechtheion was named after the demi-god Erechtheus (Cartwright). The primary function for the Erechtheion was to to house the ancient wooden cult statue of Athena, but also served other purposes as discussed below (Cartwright).

What do the Caryatids on the Erechtheion represent?

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.

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 was inside the Erechtheion?

The Erechtheion was named after the demi-god Erechtheus (Cartwright). The primary function for the Erechtheion was to to house the ancient wooden cult statue of Athena, but also served other purposes as discussed below (Cartwright).

What is Erechtheion made of?

Externally, the temple is an Ionic hexastyle, prostyle pronaos which faces east. The building is in Pentelic marble with a blue Eleusinian limestone frieze. The temple's walls were constructed in ashlar isodomic masonry.

Illustration

A detail of the south porch of the Erechtheion temple on the Athenian acropolis. The building was constructed between 421 to 406 BCE to house the ancient wooden cult statue of Athena and as a shrine to various local deities including Erechtheus.

License & Copyright

This image was first published on Flickr . Original image by Dennis Jarvis. Uploaded by Mark Cartwright, published on 02 December 2012. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike.

Erechtheion

The Erechtheion (or Erechtheum) is an ancient Greek temple constructed...

When was the Caryatid of the Erechtheion built?

The Caryatid of the Erechtheion. In the time around 420 BC in Athens, the creation of one of the world’s most classic pieces of architecture was taking place. The Persians had destroyed much of the city during a recent invasion, so Pericles, the general of Athens from 461-429 BC, commissioned two men to restore the damaged buildings atop ...

Why were the Caryatids added to the Erechtheion?

These caryatids were not originally planned for the Erechtheion, but were added to hold up a covered porch designed to hide a support beam that was added to the building after the Peloponnesian War began and caused the building to be downsized due to limited funding (wikipedia.com).

Why are Caryatids of the Erechtheion important?

The Caryatids of the Erechtheion are important to Greek architectural history because they embody the form of the ideal woman to the Ancient Greeks and they “display features which would become staple elements of Classical sculpture” (Cartwright). These statues celebrate the ideal female form while showing off the intricacy of the design needed to form them. The features of the Caryatids of the Erechtheion would soon become common across the Greek architectural community and a classic representation of the art of that age.

Why was the Erechtheion built?

The purpose for the Erechtheion is lightly debated. Some scholars believe it was built in honor of the mythical King Erechtheus (wikipedia.com) while others believe it to have been built in honor of Athena and Poseidon (Ross). No matter the original cause for it being built, the Erechtheion is a very striking structure that embodies many features common to Ancient Greek architecture.

When were Caryatids created?

When the Caryatids of the Erechtheion were created, they were made in a style that was not wholly new to the world. In the 6 th century BC , the Siphnian Treasury in Delphi was known to have had caryatids and the term Caryatid was first seen in the 4 th century BC (Cartwright). Those previous caryatid, though used in the same manner, did not receive the same notoriety as the Caryatids of the Erechtheion. They were designed in similar fashions, with the “vertical flutelike drapery folds concealing their stiff, weight-bearing legs” (Gardner & Kleiner, 119), but the Siphnian Caryatids were not as realistic and striking as the Caryatids of the Erechtheion.

What are the pillars on the Erechtheion?

In addition to being a temple built in honor of the Greek Gods, the Erechtheion is also known for the unique pillars holding up the porch on the south side. What is unique about these pillars is that they are shaped in the form of women and are called Caryatids, which is a human figure acting as a column (khanacademy.com). These caryatids were not originally planned for the Erechtheion, but were added to hold up a covered porch designed to hide a support beam that was added to the building after the Peloponnesian War began and caused the building to be downsized due to limited funding (wikipedia.com).

Illustration

This pentelic marble caryatid came from the Erechtheion, Athens, Greece. She was 1 of 6 caryatids that held up the roof of the Erechtheion. Circa 415 BCE. (The British Museum, London).

License & Copyright

Uploaded by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, published on 12 May 2016. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Copyright. You cannot use, copy, distribute, or modify this item without explicit permission from the author. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

Where are the Caryatids of the Erechtheion?from worldhistory.org

The first examples come from ancient Greek architecture and indeed, the most celebrated examples are found in the south porch of the Erechtheion on the acropolis of Athens, ...

Where is the Caryatid porch?from britannica.com

Caryatid porch of the Erechtheum, on the Acropolis at Athens.

What are the Caryatids?from worldhistory.org

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. The Erechtheion was built to house the ancient wooden cult statue of Athena but also served as a centre for the cults of Erechtheus (a mythical king of Athens), his brother Boutes, Hephaistos and Poseidon. The Caryatids display features which would become staple elements of Classical sculpture: clothes which cling to the body (the 'wet look') and a bold and more dynamic positioning of the hips and legs. Although each Caryatid wears the same robe - a belted Doric peplos and short himation - each is uniquely rendered, a feature particularly noticeable in their intricate plaited hairstyles (best seen from the rear). The arms of the figures have unfortunately been lost but Roman copies show them holding in their right hands phialai - shallow vessels for pouring libations - whilst their left hand raised slightly their robe. Scholars believe them to be carved by different artists, most probably from the workshop of Alcamenes, student and colleague of Phidias.

What is the purpose of a caryatid?from greektraveltellers.com

Caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as architectural support in the place of a column or a pillar. Its purpose in architecture is mainly decorative. The most famous Caryatids are the ones of Erechtheion on Acropolis Hill, Athens. Let’s find out more about these fascinating “Maidens”!

What is the difference between Atlas and Caryatid?from greektraveltellers.com

The Caryatids have their hands free while the weight rests simply and lightly on the head, supporting the structure elegantly. Atlas, on the other hand, uses shoulders, back and hands to give the impression of holding a lot of weight. The classic form of Caryatid is dressed in simple but flattering veils and sleeves.

What were the Caryatids' influences on architecture?from greektraveltellers.com

The influence of the Caryatids on architecture and art continued long after their time of creation. We meet them in both neoclassical and modern architecture, as well as in various forms of art - from painting to cinema. Joyful or sad, tormented or proud, sturdy and ethereal at the same time, the Caryatids keep their secrets and continue to captivate us hundreds and thousands of years later. Architects, enchanted by their puzzling mystery, used their form in monumental architectures of the Roman era. Their influence in Roman architecture was such that the first form of the Pantheon of Rome (not the one preserved today), built by Agrippa in 27 BC, had Caryatids on the façade carved by the Athenian sculptor Diogenes.

Where to see Caryatids in Greece?from greektraveltellers.com

Today, it is possible to visit and admire the Caryatids in person. When visiting Greece, you should join an Acropolis guided tour, to see the Caryatids of Erechtheion and learn more about the sacred structures of the holy rock of Athena. You will find the original Caryatids inside the Acropolis Museum. You can also take a day trip to Delphi from Athens and visit the Sanctuary of Apollo where you will walk next to the Siphnian Treasury and then admire the Caryatids inside the Archaeological Museum of Delphi! Eleusis is a town nearby Athens and you can visit its archaeological museum where the Cistophoric Daughter is exhibited, while you try to unlock the Eleusinian Mysteries.

What is a 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). The drapery bunches up at the waist and pours over the belt. She stands in contrapposto with her left knee bent and pressing against the drapery The folds of drapery on other right side resemble the fluting (vertical grooves) on a column. She looks noble and calm despite the fact that she carries the weight of a roof on her head.

What is the Erechtheion temple?

The Erechtheion is a highly decorated and elegant Ionic temple. The scroll forms at the top of the column (the capital) and its tall slender profile indicate that this is the Ionic order. The column is formed of four pieces (known as “drums”) and is fluted (decorated with vertical grooves). Just below the scroll shapes (also called volutes) you see decorative moldings, including one called “egg and dart” (egg shapes alternating with V-shapes), and below that a ring of plant-like shapes—an alternating palmette and lotus pattern.

Where did the Caryatid come from?

The word Caryatid comes from karyatidesmeaning maidens of Karyai, an ancient town in the Peloponnese. The women were said to dance with baskets on their heads in honor of Artemis. Their placing also mimics the Panathenaic procession friezes that adorn the neighboring Parthenon.

When was the Erechtheion built?

Constructed between 421-405 BCE, the six Caryatids adorn the southern porch (also referred to as Porch of the Maidens) of the Erechtheion, and serve as structural and architectural support in place of the typical columns.  An unusual and uniquely shaped building, the site was previously that of another temple destroyed in the battle with the Persians. It was made to house an olive wood statue of Athena Polias. Erechtheus was the name of an early King, who judged the gifts from Athena and Poseidon at that site. Unique in shape, structure and location, the Erechtheion’s Ionic architecture provides a lovely contrast to the Doric structure of the Parthenonright next to it. As with all Greek sculpture, they would have been brightly decorated and painted.

What are Caryatids made of?

The Erechtheion Caryatids are made of Pentelic marble. With a graceful contrapposto stance their drapery mimics the fluting of Ionic columns.

How tall are Caryatids?

The caryatids stand 2,27 meters (7.5 feet) and are made of the best Greek marble, Pentelic. Like early Korai figuresof archaic Greece, these women stand tall and straight. Unlike Korai, these are in High Classical style with a graceful contrapposto stance and detailed vertical drapery mimicking the vertical fluting of the Ionic columns. One bent leg and one straight provide visual contrast, and also a sense of stability and strength. They epitomize the idealized notions of harmony, balance and nobility.

Who copied the Caryatid hairstyles?

Most recently Professor Katherine Schwab at Fairfield University in Connecticut, USA copied the various hairstyles on six students in her Caryatid Hairstyling Project. A DVD was also created to allow people to create the styles at home.

When did the Mediterranean begin to deteriorate?

In the mid-12th century BCE, the grand palaces and sprawling kingdoms that had defined life in the Mediterranean began to deteriorate. Perhaps...

Where is the Erechtheion?

The Erechtheion or Erechtheum ( / ɪˈrɛkθiəm, ˌɛrɪkˈθiːəm /; Ancient Greek: Ἐρέχθειον, Greek: Ερέχθειο) is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens in Greece which was dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon .

When was the Erechtheion built?

The building accounts for the classical Erechtheion from 409-404 have survived allowing an unusually secure dating of the construction of the temple. Nevertheless, the question remains when was the building project inaugurated? There is no primary evidence for when construction began which is conjectured to be either the 430s, or 421 during the Peace of Nikias. The latter is broadly the consensus view, the rationale being that this lull in the long Peloponnesian war would have been the most convenient time to begin a major construction project and that there was a likely hiatus in building during the Sicilian disaster of 413. Alternatively, dates as early as the mid-430s and as late as 412 have been put forward. Work seems to have ended in 406/5 and the last accounts were from 405/4 though some mouldings were never finished and some of the bosses of some stone blocks were not chiselled off.

What is the interior layout of the Erechtheion?

There is no wholly satisfactory account of the interior layout of the Erechtheion in antiquity. The points of contention are whether and where there was an internal dividing wall, and whether the building had two storeys as suggested by Pausanias' description of it as a διπλοῦν... οἴκημα. The conventional view of the reconstruction of the interior of the Erechtheion naos is that it was divided in two in imitation of the opisthodomos of the archaic temple of Athena Polias and that the altar of Athena was in the west half of the chamber and the altars of Erechtheus, Poseidon and Boutes in the other. Alternatively, that the Erechtheion was a replacement for the east cella of the archaic Temple of Athena and would have had an east cross wall.

Why were the Caryatids removed?

In 1800 one of the caryatids and the north column of the east porch together with the overlying section of the entablature were removed by Lord Elgin in order to decorate his Scottish mansion , and were later sold to the British Museum (along with the pedimental and frieze sculpture taken from the Parthenon). Athenian legend had it that at night the remaining five Caryatids could be heard wailing for their lost sister. Elgin attempted to remove a second Caryatid; when technical difficulties arose, he tried to have it sawn to pieces. The statue was smashed, and its fragments were left behind. It was later reconstructed haphazardly with cement and iron rods. A piece of a carved female figure sculpture identified as belonging to the Erechtheion frieze was acquired by English Architect Sir John Soane and is currently on display at Sir John Soane's museum in Holborn, London.

What was the first fire in the Parthenon?

The first recorded fire that the classical building suffered was perhaps 377/6, a second more severe fire took hold sometime in 1st century BC or earlier followed by a campaign of repair. The Erechtheion along with the Parthenon suffered a further major destruction at some point in the 3rd or 4th century A.D, whether this was due to Herulian or Visigoth attack or a natural disaster is unclear. After which, Julian the Apostate undertook the reconstruction of the Parthenon as a pagan temple in circa A.D. 361 and 363, at which point the Parthenon was the only attested site of the cult of Athena on the akropolis, implying that the Erechtheion had been abandoned. In the post-classical period, the Erechtheion was subject to a number of structural changes that must be assumed to be have been prompted by the building's adaption to Christian worship. The first was its conversion to a pillared hall with a groin-vaulted roof at some point in the 4th century. In the late 6th or 7th century, the Erechtheion was converted into a three-aisled basilica church with the West Corridor serving as the narthex. The central portion of the east foundations was removed to make room for a curved apse. In the 12th century, the basilica was renovated. The round apse was enlarged and was given straight sides on the exterior. The chancel screen was extended to the North and South Walls. During the Frankish occupation (1204- 1458), the Erechteion was deconsecrated and changed to a Bishop’s residence, probably for the Catholic bishops of Athens who held mass in the Latin Cathedral of Our Lady in the Parthenon. With the advent of Ottoman control and the adaption of the akropolis plateau to a garrison, the Erechtheion took on its final incarnation as the Dizdar 's harem. This final period of the building's use also witnessed the beginning of traveller's accounts and architectural recording of the structure along with its despoilation by antique collectors. Perhaps the greatest damage to the edifice came with the siege of 1826/27 when the maiden porch and west facade were felled by cannon fire and the masonry joints were scavenged for lead. This ruined state is the condition of the site that prompted the first major anastylosis of the Erechtheion by Kyriakos Pittakis between 1837 and 1840.

What is the erectheum associated with?

The Erectheum was associated with some of the most ancient and holy relics of the Athenians, such as the Palladion, a xoanon or "wood-carven effigy" of Athena Polias (Protectress of the City), and some of the holiest sites: the marks of Poseidon 's trident and the salt water well (the "salt sea") called the Erechtheis that resulted from Poseidon's strike; and the sacred olive tree planted by Athena in her successful rivalry with Poseidon for the city; the supposed burial places of the mythical kings Kekrops and Erechtheus; the sacred precinct to Kekrops' daughter Pandrosus; an altar to the tribal hero Boutes. The shrine ( heroön) to Pandion is included as part of the Erectheum by some scholars.

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 knee, while the three on the right stand on their left knee.

Overview

Ancient usage

Etymology

Renaissance and after

See also

External links