The Flickr Caryatids Image Generatr

In 1879, during excavations for the Tiber embankments, in the garden of the Renaissance Villa Famesina were found "remains of a noble private house of the Augustan period, decorated with the most beautiful wall paintings ever seen in Rome." The find spot was in the Augustan urban district XIV, called "Transtiberina," the modern Trastevere.

The district was a center for artisans and ethnic minorities and was the site of many warehouses (horrea) for goods transported by river; but there were also gardens and villas facing the Tiber, such as the well-known gardens of Caesar.

The discovery caused great excitement. At that time wall paintings from the time of Augustus were rare in Rome, only known from the House of Livia on the Palatine; the Palatine complexes of the House of Augustus and the Aula Isiaca were yet to be found.

This fresco is from a corridor, a covered passageway that connected the two wings of the villa, partly straight and partly curved, following the shape of the central exedra. The wall is divided by slender columns. Their capitals support female figures whose architectural function is in turn to support the columns of the superstructure. The female figures hold floral garlands that link them to one another. They may be meant to represent Caryatids, the women of Caria sold into slavery, who gave the name to female figures used as supports instead of columns.

The most important part of the decoration is the small pictures in the upper zone: still lifes with masks from the theater (as seen above) alternate with imaginary landscapes, shrines, statues of divinities, little aedicula, and altars, the whole populated by figures of peasants, fishermen, and shepherds.

Villa della Farnesina (corridor F-G), Rome, 1st century BCE.

Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome

In 1879, during excavations for the Tiber embankments, in the garden of the Renaissance Villa Famesina were found "remains of a noble private house of the Augustan period, decorated with the most beautiful wall paintings ever seen in Rome." The find spot was in the Augustan urban district XIV, called "Transtiberina," the modern Trastevere.

The district was a center for artisans and ethnic minorities and was the site of many warehouses (horrea) for goods transported by river; but there were also gardens and villas facing the Tiber, such as the well-known gardens of Caesar.

The discovery caused great excitement. At that time wall paintings from the time of Augustus were rare in Rome, only known from the House of Livia on the Palatine; the Palatine complexes of the House of Augustus and the Aula Isiaca were yet to be found.

This fresco is from a corridor, a covered passageway that connected the two wings of the villa, partly straight and partly curved, following the shape of the central exedra. The wall is divided by slender columns. Their capitals support female figures whose architectural function is in turn to support the columns of the superstructure. The female figures hold floral garlands that link them to one another. They may be meant to represent Caryatids, the women of Caria sold into slavery, who gave the name to female figures used as supports instead of columns.

The most important part of the decoration is the small pictures in the upper zone: still lifes with masks from the theater alternate with imaginary landscapes, shrines, statues of divinities, little aedicula, and altars, the whole populated by figures of peasants, fishermen, and shepherds. Here we have what appears to be ships attacking a fortified town - perhaps a scene from the Trojan War?

Villa della Farnesina (corridor F-G), Rome, 1st century BCE.

Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome

In 1879, during excavations for the Tiber embankments, in the garden of the Renaissance Villa Famesina were found "remains of a noble private house of the Augustan period, decorated with the most beautiful wall paintings ever seen in Rome." The find spot was in the Augustan urban district XIV, called "Transtiberina," the modern Trastevere.

The district was a center for artisans and ethnic minorities and was the site of many warehouses (horrea) for goods transported by river; but there were also gardens and villas facing the Tiber, such as the well-known gardens of Caesar.

The discovery caused great excitement. At that time wall paintings from the time of Augustus were rare in Rome, only known from the House of Livia on the Palatine; the Palatine complexes of the House of Augustus and the Aula Isiaca were yet to be found.

This fresco is from a corridor, a covered passageway that connected the two wings of the villa, partly straight and partly curved, following the shape of the central exedra. The wall is divided by slender columns. Their capitals support female figures whose architectural function is in turn to support the columns of the superstructure. The female figures hold floral garlands that link them to one another. They may be meant to represent Caryatids, the women of Caria sold into slavery, who gave the name to female figures used as supports instead of columns.

The most important part of the decoration is the small pictures in the upper zone: still lifes with masks from the theater (as seen above) alternate with imaginary landscapes, shrines, statues of divinities, little aedicula, and altars, the whole populated by figures of peasants, fishermen, and shepherds.

Villa della Farnesina (corridor F-G), Rome, 1st century BCE.

Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome

The Porch of the Maidens or Caryatid Porch or Korai Porch of the Erechtheion (Ἐρέχθειον) on the Acropolis in Athens

The Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens

The porch of the Caryatids in the Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens

The Porch of the Maidens or Caryatid Porch or Korai Porch of the Erechtheion (Ἐρέχθειον) on the Acropolis in Athens

Detail of a large Hellenistic fresco depicting an architectural structure with doors and masks. This tragic theater mask is sitting on a ledge supported by tiny caryatids that seem to portay mythical figures. In all of the frescoes from this villa, there is a liberal use of cinnabar in the background, as seen here in the red areas.

Roman, from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor, Boscoreale, Room G. About 60 BCE.

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (no inv. number 1)

This fresco panel - from a curved apse wall in the right rear corner of Herculaneum's Augusteum - depicts a fantasy architectural scene. Two caryatids - statues of maidens that serve as columns - dressed in peploi hold offering plates. They stand in front of a broken pediment with tritons holding what look to be curved wooden objects (perhaps prows of ships), with an imperial eagle with spread wings between them, standing atop a shield with the image of a lion (the Nemean lion, since Hercules was the mythical founder of the city and appears in many of the frescoes in the Augusteum). Suspended from above is a mask of a bearded elderly man wearing a gold diadem - two cornucopia with crowns emerge above this, along with two acanthus volutes.

It's interesting to note that these paintings of sculptures are themselves painted, as was the custom with ancient sculpture.

Roman, 1st century CE.

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Campania Galleries (MANN inv. 9825)

Na Plaza de Sagasta, em Zamora, destaca-se o Edifício das Cariátides, um exemplo marcante da arquitetura modernista. A sua fachada é ornamentada com figuras femininas esculpidas que sustentam a varanda (cariátides), inspiradas na arte clássica. Os detalhes decorativos e as amplas janelas conferem-lhe uma elegância distinta, contrastando com os tons quentes dos edifícios vizinhos. Este conjunto arquitetónico reflete a influência do modernismo no início do século XX, num dos espaços mais emblemáticos da cidade.

I love these Caryatids (sculpted female figures) which support the roof of the Erechtheion and look out from the Acropolis over the city of Athens below. Although they look identical, each one is actually unique.
The Erechtheion was the most sacred building on the Acropolis. The eastern part of the temple was dedicated to the worship of Athena, the patron goddess of the city, while the western part was dedicated to Poseidon-Erechtheus, from which the temple got its name, Hephaestus and other gods and heroes. It is where Athens’ most sacred relic, the Palladium (an olive wood effigy of the goddess Pallas Athena) was housed. The building had two extensions. The roof of the northern part rested on six Ionic columns, and beneath its floor, the Athenians showed the sign that Zeus had killed the mythical King Erechtheus. Beneath the throne was the tomb of the other mythical king of Athens, Cecrops.

Acropolis in Athens: the temple of Erechtheion with caryatids.

The south side of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens with the marble caryatids which support the roof of the south porch of the Erechtheion.

The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens, Greece, and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance.

De Akropolis in Athene: Erechtheion met de kariatiden.