Hello, culture lovers! Today's dip into the PDoA,3E* produces this:
CARYATID. A sculptured female figure used as a column to support an entablature or other similar member, as on the Erechtheum. The term is also applied loosely to various other columns and pilasters wholle or partly in the form of human figures; ATLANTES (male caryatids), CANEPHORAE (females, carrying baskets on their heads), HERMS (three-quarter length figures on pedestals), TELEMONES (another name for Atlantes), and TERMS (tapering pedestals merging at the top into human, animal, or mythical figures).
*From the Penguin Dictionary of Architecture, Third Edition
The Erechtheum (or Erechtheion) Caryatids, back before they got replaced with copies. (The five remaining original sculptures are kept in a closed case in the Acropolis Museum. And you can read about the Erechtheion here.)
Atlantes, from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.
I can't find any canephorae, telemone, or term pictures right off hand, but here's you some herms from the Pavillon Vendôme. (Caution--that last link might not be working right--it looks like all the text on the page has been replaced with some kind of odd computer gibberish of some sort.)
Posted by Terry Oglesby at September 7, 2005 11:35 AM
