63. Caryatid from the Erechtheion,

second from the left on the front of the south porch,

Athenian Acropolis, Greek, Classical style, c. 420 B.C.E.

Marble, height: 231 cm. The British Museum, London.

 

 

In the caryatid, the column takes its most ornate form, replaced entirely by the statue of a woman. It decorates the porch of the Erechtheion, a temple to Athena on the Acropolis in Athens, built to replace one destroyed by the Persians. In its form and decoration, this temple deviates from tradition, including not only the unusual caryatids, but also an asymmetrical plan on varying ground levels, with two porches jutting out of the main building. This atypical plan was due to the multiple shrines incorporated into the temple, and also to its placement on an uneven rocky outcrop, home to the original olive tree given to the city by Athena. The six caryatids supported the south porch, one of the unusual additions to the regular temple plan. The caryatid figures have all the solidity of form we find in other fifth-century sculpture, and therefore seem up to the task of supporting a roof. The exaggerated shift in weight, and the clinginess of the drapery, are typical of sculpture of the end of the fifth century B.C.E.