Saturday, January 4, 2020

Seicento Caryatids

Anonymous Flemish Artist
Group of Three Caryatids
ca. 1650
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Giovanni Battista Carlone
Studies for Angels as Caryatids in the Capella del Doge, Genoa
before 1684
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Charles Le Brun
Caryatid
before 1690
drawing
Victoria & Albert Museum

Charles Le Brun
Caryatid
(partial design for thesis print)
ca. 1642
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Livio Mehus
Two Herms as Caryatids
ca. 1650-70
engraving
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Disinterment of the Hermes

What forms divine in adamant fair –
Carven demigod and god,
And hero-marbles rivalling these,
Bide under Latium's sod,
Or lost in sediment and drift
Alluvial which the Grecian rivers sift.

To dig for these, O better far
Than raking arid sands
For gold more barren meetly theirs
Sterile, with brimming hands.

– Herman Melville (1891)

Jan de Bisschop after Daniele da Volterra
Caryatid flanking Aedicula
1671
etching
British Museum

Jan de Bisschop after Daniele da Volterra
Caryatid flanking Aedicula
1671
etching
British Museum

attributed to Giovanni Lanfranco
Figure of Satyr as Caryatid
early 17th century
drawing
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Richard Collin after Joachim von Sandrart
Satyr as Caryatid
1676
engraving
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Arent van Bolten
Caryatid
before 1633
drawing
British Museum

Artus Quellinus
Weeping Caryatid
ca. 1650
terracotta
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Artus Quellinus
Captive Caryatid
ca. 1650
terracotta
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Hubert Quellinus after Artus Quellinus
Weeping and Captive Caryatids
ca. 1655-65
etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Georg Petel after Peter Paul Rubens
The Three Graces as Caryatid Group
ca. 1621
gilt bronze statuette
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston