Caryatid

Is a sculpted female figure that takes the place of a pillar or column and serves as an architectural support with an entablature on her head.

The name derives from the Greek term karyatides which means ‘maidens of Karyai’. Karyai had a famous temple dedicated to Artemis-Karyatis, and the local sacred dance involved women carrying baskets of live reeds on their heads ‘like dancing plants’.

As an architectural motif, the caryatid has been used since ancient times going back to Phoenicia and archaic Greece and Egypt. The most famous versions from this time are the figures from the ‘Porch of the Caryatids forming part of the Erechtheum in the Acropolis in Athens, six of which are part of the ‘Elgin Marbles’ in the British Museum. Modern architecture featuring the motif can be seen across the Europe and America, with St. Pancras Church in the Euston Road (commissioned in 1816) in London designed as an imitation of the Erechtheum.

The motif has also been used in furniture, housewares and garden sculpture from the Renaissance, through the 18th century and into the 19th century, most notably during the classic revival of that period, when caryatids were popular as mantelpiece supports.

Atlantes is the name given to male supporting figures, after the notion of Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders.