Introduction

The hermeneutic approach to Art - if taken to the extreme - implies a parallel to chaos theory, in the sense that any artworks should then be analyzed in light of all possible influences over their creation. The following attempts to identify and discuss social, cultural and technological butterfly effect igniters, in the context of two specific works of art - Mnesikles and Alkamenes' Maiden Porch and Rodin's Fallen Caryatid. These otherwise disparate works are bound together in their use of the female figure as an architectural and artistic device. The 2300 years that set them apart will enable a diachronic understanding of their symbolic relationship, thus evidencing contextual influences over their creation.

The methodology used in the interpretation of the two artworks is based on the one proposed by Joan Rufach's Method for the Interpretation of Works of Art. For each piece, the relevant socio-cultural landscape is investigated, followed by practical investigations on the technical procedure and formal representation. Lastly, the actual socio-cultural content is analyzed, through the deconstruction of its significance and evaluation of its historical projection. This study should enable a fruitful discussion on the proposed question, progressing naturally into the theme introduced in the first paragraph. The spelling used in the first part, addressing Greek culture, will be on the German/Greek model, as opposed to the English/Latin model. Therefore, Erechtheion is used instead of Erechtheion, for example. The Greek letter kappa is transliterated as k. This results in Mnesikles being used, instead of Mnesicles. Parallel information deemed important enough for an immediate consult was included in footnotes, while out of scope issues raised in the text were incorporated in the endnotes. on-line revision note: footnotes can be found on the references section, while the endnotes have been integrated with the main copy.

Maiden Porch, by Mnesikles and Alkamenes.1

c. 430-421 BC - 406-404 BC2

Social-Artistic Landscape

Greek art can be divided into the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods. The Persian Wars (480 BC to 448 BC) are usually considered the dividing line between the Archaic and Classical periods, while the rule of Alexander the Great, from 336 BC to 323 BC, separates the later from the Hellenistic period.3 The Classical period produced a great number of known examples of Greek architecture and art, such as the Parthenon and the Erechtheion. Architecture is the most relevant art form of the Classical Greek culture. It can generally be divided into three distinct orders: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. From Vitruvius onwards, these were associated with specific regions. However, they are more likely to range from the earlier and simpler to the later and complex.4 The Persian Wars ended in 448 BC with the Greeks emerging as victors, and Athens, consequently, dominating the region. In 431 BC, Sparta and Corinth allied against the Athenian Empire, beginning the Peloponnesian War. Between both wars, Perikles - an influential leader of Athens and strong supporter of democracy - initiated the construction of many building projects, among them most of the surviving structures at the Acropolis. These include the Odeon next to the Theatre of Dionysos, the Parthenon, the Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike and the Eleusinion. Having died during the Spartan siege in 429 BC, he was not able to complete all of the planned edifices. Depending on the author, either a brief truce in 421 BC, or a succession of catastrophic events (which would have had the effect of making the Athenians reconsider their relation with the gods), permitted the construction of a great temple, that was to replace the old one in grace of Athena, destroyed by the Persians.5 In 404 BC, Athens surrendered, and the anti-democratic party took control of the city.6

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Formal and Practical Investigations

Technical Procedure

Materials and Process

White pentelic marble with wooden coffered ceiling.

The marble was processed into large blocks (up to 4.43m long)7; differently shaped pieces that compose the ensemble (such as the cornice, frieze, architrave and stereobate); sculptural elements (draped female figures); and specific ornaments (the capital and base). A leveling course was applied to the bare rock where the Porch stands. This serves as a sustaining surface for the stereobate and stylobate, formed by three large steps. Over these, a number of large blocks of varying size shape the elevating structure upon which the maidens stand. Above, the architrave, frieze and cornice structure the ceiling. All the pieces are processed differently, according to need, and are perfectly united without any cement.8

Result

The Maiden Porch is part of the Erechtheion. It is positioned on the western most part of the south wall, overseeing Kekrops' grave. From Lesk's description, it can be inferred that the podium is 6.473m wide and 2.504m high.9 The porch is asymmetrical in depth, from 2.5m to 3.5m. The statues are 2.31m tall.

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Formal Representation

Essential Elements - Use and combination

This composition combines the three-part formal order and a system of proportions.10 The main elements are the crepidoma, the column, and the entablature. Unlike the rest of the temple, the pre-established proportions of the Ionic order are difficult to apply, because of the figurative nature of the shafts.11 Lesk remarks that existing measurements lack accuracy.12 The most unusual feature of the porch is the use of female figures as alternate devices for the shafts. These are draped, standing with their upper-arms across the length of the body. The three figures on the left have their right knees bent, the opposite happening to the three on the right. All of the figures are crowned with a basket decorated in egg-and-dart molding, which substitutes the usual capital. An Ionic base is not present here.

Result

From the use and combination of architectural and figural elements results a classic Greek prostyle tetrastyle ionic porch13, with six korai14 serving as roof support.15 These stand contraposto with [their] weight on the outside leg.16 There is no access from the cellas, which might be considered unusual. The entrance is open to the west corridor of the main building, its exit facing an olive tree. The Kekropeion is only accessible from the Porch.17

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Social Content

Significance

Symbolism

Lesk is undoubtedly right in her assertion that a full understanding of the symbolism of the Maiden Porch depends on its analysis over time.18 However, for the purposes of this work the attention should focus on its classical intent. As such, the Porch must be considered in light of its original context. That is, its inclusion in an Ionic temple, that sought to substitute an older one. As part of a temple, the highest form of architecture of Greek Classical culture, some of its symbolism can be extracted from existing literature. Rufach et al relate the Greek temple's three-part structure to the communication between the three worlds: the inferior (earth): crepidoma; earthly (man): column - superior (gods): entablature. To Vitruvius, Book IV, the Ionic order originated from the use of women's proportions as the basis for its relationships.19 The typical use of female figures in Ionic and Corinthian (which developed the Ionic's slender proportions) structures seem to further support this notion.20

The understanding of the Porch's ancient purpose lies, primarily, in the decryption of its most individual feature, the figural elements. Commonly considered as either caryatids or korai by most scholars, the maidens' original identity conceals their function. In a recent work on this problem, Lesk casts doubt on the usual interpretation of Vitruvius' De Architectura as a not to be trusted compilation of pedagogic stories.21 The problem lies in the interpretation of the term caryatid. It is considered that Vitruvius' account of the caryatid's origins is fabricated, because the caryatids of the Erechtheion don't conform to his description. Lesk directed attention to the fact that it should not be assumed that Vitruvius was referring to the Erechtheion's maidens.22 In fact, the female figures at the Maiden Porch strongly differ from his description of the caryatid device. Other solutions for the problem are offered:

The Erechtheion maidens [...] descended from the pre-Persian female architectural supports from Delphi [or] the term "caryatid' refers to the dancers of the shrine of Artemis Karyatis [...]23

It is unlikely that the statues could refer to Artemis Karyatis, as the Erechtheion seems to have been erected in honor of Athena. The pre-Persian descent origin, i.e. Siphnian Treasury related caryatids, is also unsatisfactory, because the Erechtheion was not a treasury.24 This leaves relatively few interpretations, which must functionally relate:

1. The caryatid as a funerary device: in the Persian Stoa at Sparta, the Sveshtari tomb in Bulgaria and a rock-cut circular tomb at Agia Triada at Rhodes, there are reliefs that comply with the Vitruvian caryatid.25 Lesk refers to Kontoleon and Scholl, asserting wide acceptance of this interpretation. If so, then the Maiden Porch would be a monopteral heroön26 to mark the tomb of Kekrops.27
2. The last possibility, advanced by Lesk, partly refutes all previous interpretations:

[...] the Maiden Porch ended up serving primarily as a [...] physical bridge between the old cult place of Athena Polias and her new home in the western portion of the Erechtheion.28

She proposes that the alignment of the east cella of the Archaic Temple of Athena with the western chamber of the Erechtheion where the olive wood statue of Athenas Polias stood with her back to the West Cross-Wall implies that the routes of ritual access between the two cult places is undeniable.29 This also has the added benefit of resonating with the ancient denomination of the figures as replacements for the archaic korai destroyed by the Persians, as well as allowing the contextualization of the olive tree, symbol of Athena. Thus, the korai's origins lie in the honored teenage servants of Athena.30 So, upon a close reading of its symbolism, it appears that the Maiden Porch served at least two purposes, when it was built: the ritual protection of Kekrops, the city's legendary first king; and communication with the archaic temple of Athena.

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Historical evaluation

The artist - Ideological and sociological structure

In the fifth century BC, Athens' political system was an aristocratically dominated democracy. Its dynamics were imperialist, based on a warmongering policy. Society was divided into dominant classes, free citizens, and slaves.31 Under the direction of Perikles, Mnesikles, Kallikrates and Iktinos designed and built most structures inside the Athenian acropolis. Pheidias and Alkamenes were important sculptors at the time.32 Mnesikles is the most likely architect of the Erechtheion and the Propylaea. The technique of contraposto used in the korai is easily related to Pheidias, however, his death in c.430 BC points to his pupil, Alkamenes, as the most likely sculptor of this work.

Historical projection

Projected between wars and built after two great catastrophes, in a democracy strongly founded on Perikles' influence, the Erechtheion is a unique example of Greek architecture. The reason that most likely led to its construction was a renewed conscience of the decadence into which the cults of Poseidon, the Ground-Shaker and Athena, the City Protectress had fallen, as demonstrated to the Athenian citizens by the great earthquake and plague of that period. This certainly applies to the Maiden Porch: a product of the unique minds of Perikles, Mnesikles and Alkamenes, its specific origins were also exceptional and unique to their place. Democracy presumably had influence over the final result, as evidenced by the fact that some parts of the temple, unfinished by the end of the Peloponnesian War - when democracy was interrupted - were permanently left that way. In this sense, the Maiden Porch is a direct product of the socio-political circumstances of the time.

Aesthetically, the use of the Ionic order is consistent with the Classical period, but specifically, with the golden age of Perikles, which could be generalized as the high point of Classical Greek culture. Vitruvius commented the changes made to the Ionic order by Roman architects.33 Symbolically, the use of the korai would be replicated in times to come (especially in Augustan Rome), but its original significance would be diluted and conflated with the Vitruvian caryatid. These factors converged to point out that the Maiden Porch owes its individuality to the social, cultural and technological context of its time and place.

The Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone, by Auguste Rodin34

Modeled c. 1880-1

Social-Artistic Landscape

Neoclassicism had its peak in France in the late 18th century, with the French Revolution overthrowing Absolutism. In Art, this ideology was translated into Academia, the academic artistic status-quo, in which reason prevails over imagination, intellectuality and discipline over creativity and inspiration.35 This tradition was followed on, in the 19th century, by institutions such as the Ecole and Académie des Beux-Arts and the Salon de Paris.36 Even so, at the turn of the century, it began to take shape a concern over the creative capacity of the individual, fact which represents the beginnings of Romanticism.37 In the sense that it was inspired by the ideals of the past, Romanticism went side by side with Classicism during the 19th century. However, it was opposed from it, in the creative freedom it gave the artist, thereby paving the way for a stronger subjectivist approach to Art.

The persistence of the academic establishment, through the Academy of Fine-Arts and the Paris Salon exhibits, was therefore juxtaposed with this new artistic order. This would set up the appearance of another movement, Impressionism, in 1874.38 It was characterized by the use of everyday life subjects, instead of History, as the source of subject matter.39 This approach to painting is usually identified with a strong concern for light.40 In mid-19th century, another movement, Realism (and its outgrowth Naturalism), strived to depict commonplace or "realistic" themes, reacting against both theatrical drama and classical forms and idealistic treatment of the subjects - Classicism and Romanticism.41 This movement would provoke another response, this time in the form of Symbolism. This was a late 19th century metaphorical art movement, providing images and objects with strong symbolic significance. Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire is considered to have imparted momentum to the symbolic movement.42

At the same time, socio-economic, political and technological developments, most notably the generalized industrialization of society, were taking place, making way for progress. For Art, Modernism meant that the creation process would be faced from a new perspective, at the beginning of each new work, negating Plato's age-old notion of the ideal forms.

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Formal and Practical Investigations

Technical Procedure

Materials and Process

Clay, plaster and bronze.

Rodin most likely had his model Adele Abruzzezzi move freely in his atelier, while the sculptor quickly made sketches in clay.43 The process would consist of observing the model from all angles, integrating light into the study, as described by him.44 This clay model would be constantly moistened in order to have an impression made and an example in plaster [...] cast from the mould of the impression.45 This process is called sand casting (bon creux), and it differs from the lost wax casting process (creux perdu or cire perdue) in that several reproductions are possible.46

Sand casting was common in 19th century sculpture, when broken parts and replicas were a daily part of a sculptor's working apparatus.47 Due to the lack of detailed inventory on each specific casting, it cannot be affirmed with certainty that the cast found at the Musée Rodin in Paris was produced using the sand-casting method.48 However, The Fallen Caryatid shares a number of elements with other sculptures, such as The Caryatid with an Urn and The Fallen Angel.49 This suggests that it, too, was the product of Rodin's typical assemblages, and, consequently, sand casting.50 The last step was the patining, a chemical process that gives the final bronze its characteristic color. It is unclear what the exact patina on this Fallen Caryatid is. However, according to Hoffman's receipts for patining bronze, one of the following seem to apply:51

1. Shades of brown: potassium sulphide, barium sulphide, ammonia and water
2. Antique effect: nitrate of copper, sal ammoniac, pulverized modeling clay, powdered chalk and milk
3. Renaissance black: nitrate of copper, smoking straw fire, chloride of ammonia, flower pot of sand, milk and chalk. Bismuth nitrate is also used, to dull the black patina.

Result

Bronze statue; dark or black patina; 445 x 318 x 318 mm.52

The statue is very compact and, because of the generalized detailing of its features, one has the sense of the figure's emergence from or sinking into the material.53 Furthermore, it communicates completeness, which is related to its smoothness and solidity; but at the same time, suspension, due to the (apparently) incomplete finishing. This dichotomy repeats itself in the supple qualities of the feminine figure, in contrast with the richness in detail of the stone she bears.

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Formal Representation

Essential Elements - Use and combination

Two elements compose the piece: a female figure and a stone. There is some drapery over the figure's left thigh. The pedestal where the sculpture rests on is low. Because of the statue's small dimensions, the whole composition rests on an elevating structure, placed in front of the south façade of the Hotel Biron, which houses the Rodin Museum in Paris. The young female figure is nude, with drapery covering her left thigh. She is crouching, with her head bent sideways, carrying a proportionally large stone. The texture of the figure is smooth, polished and graceful, while the rock is uneven and rough. Most of the feminine features are generalized, as though figure was not actually finished.

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Social Content

Significance

Symbolism

There is an evident relation between the Fallen Caryatid and Sisyphus, who was compelled to roll a big stone up a steep hill; but before it reached the top of the hill the stone always rolled down, and Sisyphus had to begin all over again.54

Vitruvius first addressed the origins of the architectural device of the caryatid. According to him, its genesis could be traced to the women of the town of Caryae, taken as slaves after allying with the Persians against the Greeks. If so, the caryatid's origins are a symbolic punishment for the betrayal of their hometown.55 Not being an architectural device, the Fallen Caryatid presents other important differences, when compared to the Vitruvian caryatid. The most evident should be the fact that a matron is depicted; she is naked, with the drapery covering her thigh; she is represented as being fragile, crushed under the weight of the stone she bears; and her facial features are very generalized.

The caryatid theme communicates transgression, punishment and repentance. When analyzed in its initial context, The Gates of Hell, a parallel can be traced with the Christian conception of damnation. In fact, the Fallen Caryatid was initially part of a broader group under the damned women theme, largely concerned with female homosexuality and inspired by Baudelaire's Femmes Damnées.56 The youthfulness of the caryatid seems to imply lack of knowledge of the device's defining characteristics.57 However, it is doubtful that Rodin had access to historical information that conformed itself with more accurate, current research.58

Subject

It could be that Rodin was not referring to the Vitruvian caryatid of post-Persian punishment. In the 19th century, it was common that the korai of the south porch in the Erechtheion were mistakenly referred to as caryatids. At the beginning of the century, the Elgin Marbles had been brought to England, so it is understandable that the term caryatid was conflated with the maidens of the Erechtheion.59 In this case, the Fallen Caryatid would have to be considered as symbolic of the willing sacrifice of the priestesses of Athenas Polis, for whom the Erechtheion was built.60 If so, why would Rodin include the sculpture in The Gates of Hell? The irony of a pagan priestess in the Christian hell comes to mind.

Whatever Rodin's intention was, the nakedness and youthfulness of the statue indicates an erotic concern, which conforms to the artist's profile: negating the ideal beauty and valorizing the individual sensuality. Berger went further into it while addressing this issue, calling it the Pygmalion promise and Rodin's desire for it. The author also pointed to the fact that most of his works seem imprisoned into the material they were made of, going as far as to claim that it would be a way to maintain power over the sculpture, by way of a conscious sexually motivated repression. This could explain the Caryatid's generalized detailing, and the previously referred sense of the figure's emergence from or sinking into the material.61

Through Jubal Harshaw, Heinlein freely interpreted it in the following most fascinating passage:62

She's a good girl-look at her face. Serious, unhappy at her failure, not blaming anyone, not even the gods...and still trying to shoulder her load, after she's crumpled under it.
But she's more than good art denouncing bad art; she's a symbol for every woman who ever shouldered a load too heavy. But not alone women-this symbol means every man and woman who ever sweated out life in uncomplaining fortitude, until they crumpled under their loads. It's courage, Ben, and victory.
'Victory'?
Victory in defeat; there is none higher. She didn't give up, Ben; she's still trying to lift that stone after it has crushed her. She's a father working while cancer eats away his insides, to bring home one more pay check. She's a twelve-year old trying to mother her brothers and sisters because Mama had to go to Heaven. She's a switchboard operator sticking to her post while smoke chokes her and fire cuts off her escape. She's all the unsung heroes who couldn't make it but never quit.63

One could go further, and relate this interpretation to early forms of feminism, whose first organized movements date from the 19th century. While this subject is a matter of ongoing debate, there are indications that prehistoric matriarchal societies did exist. This notion was certainly in fashion in the 19th century, through works, today discredited but then well regarded, such as Friederich Engels' concept of progress through cultural evolution. Taking this into consideration, and aside the polemic, the first Indo-European civilizations, of which the Greeks descended, were the first well-documented patriarchal societies. This could have enabled the appearance of the caryatid device.

In Rodin's time, the first signs of a new paradigm had started to appear, through works such as John Stuart Mills' The Subjection of Women, or the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. In this context, it is plausible that the Fallen Caryatid symbolism is one of feminist emancipation. Under this light, the stone she bears would represent the civilization of Men, which rests and depends on the shoulders of Women. The nudity would therefore symbolize the liberation from the shackles of society. Its seemingly contradicting generalized features could relate to the universality of the movement. Rodin's own stance limits this view though: the artist detested sculptured literature. This is the underlying individual quality about Rodin's work: the constant dichotomy between the romantic, symbolic themes, and the rationality in his approach to it, much closer to Classicism.

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Historical evaluation

The artist - Ideological and sociological structure

Auguste Rodin was a late 19th century French sculptor and graphic artist. He is generally considered the greatest sculptor of his time. Presumably, father Eymard, from the Eudist Fathers, had considerable influence over Rodin's religious imaginary. Having failed to enter the Ecole des Beaux-Arts for three times, he often described himself as a student of Barye and of Carrier-Belleuse, with whom he was exposed to animal anatomy and classical Greek influences, respectively. In his 1875 trip to Italy, Rodin visited Rome and Florence, which contributed to Michelangelo's influence over him. Both Rose Beuret and Camille Claudel, the sculptor's longtime companion and later wife, and his student and lover, certainly had an effect on his work. Rodin's artistic influences can be traced, to a certain degree, to Classicist themes and methods, such as that of integrating light into the sculpture. However, his approach to those themes is Romantic, as evidenced by his naturalistic tendencies.64 If nothing else, his extreme emphasis on the individual, as well as the extreme disregard for the forms, leads us in that direction.

At this point, Rodin's Impressionist character should be apparent, as made clear by his preoccupation with light; the usual choice of naturalistic subject matter; and the individual subjective (impressionist) quality of his work. In any case, Seltz considers him one of two sculptors to whom the term Impressionist can be applied.65 Mentioned before, Baudelaire and his symbolism had a considerable effect on 19th century art, particularly on Rodin's. Of the Celle Qui Fut Heaulmière, Francklyn Paris considered that it had more hidden significance, more of the "unspoken', more "theme' than anything.66 With a "rag and a bone and hank of hair' he symbolized the entire comédie humaine.67 Another prominent feature of his work is his particular type of realism, funded on naturalism as the source of subject matter, but executed evidencing its own artificiality, through unfinished modeling and editing.68

Located in a time period where academic sculpture continued to lead the more conventional forms of figurative sculpture into a blind alley, Rodin lead the way out into unorthodox sculpting, which ultimately paved the way for Brancusi, thereby opening the way to abstraction.69 In this sense, one could consider Rodin an early Modernist.

Historical projection

Situated at the end of the 19th century, the Fallen Caryatid's creation was the culminating point in a long standing Classical institution of using the caryatid theme in Art and Architecture. For sculpture, it helped define the turning moment between the figurative tradition and Modernism - its many casts and variations were a sign of the times, undoubtedly made possible because of the use of technology in a radical new way. Rodin's sculpture was so serialized (by the use of foundries alien to the creative process) that it is now significantly hard to distinguish between originals and fakes. This question must be asked, as it is a factor of dissent between scholars.70 Even though the technology was not entirely new, its use was. Therefore the Fallen Caryatid is, in that sense, a product of the Industrial Revolution.

Contextually, his work is a product of a personal religion and mythology based on [Rodin's] awareness of the Christian and non-Christian past. This means, Rodin's sensibility was of his time and not outside of it.71 Hughes concurs, by looking at the aesthetics:

Then one must count his sexual frankness, overwhelming in its time, and his concomitant refusal to idealize the body's postures; Rodin's poses do not belong to earlier sculpture.72

One could develop it, and propose that his poses do not belong to later sculpture as well. While Rodin is admired by his method and technique, his romantic themes are slightly unacceptable in modern times. Looking at his realistic-artificial approach, the 19th century put less of an onus on the artist to repress the workmanlike aspects of this trade.73 Its symbolism translates, as previously seen, to a set of socio-cultural values that was simply unattainable in a different time period. Whether it signifies the deconstruction of a long-standing Classical tradition or a call for the emancipation of women, The Fallen Caryatid can be shown to be particular to that time and place.

Conclusion

I deliberately chose the Maiden Porch and the Fallen Caryatid as the subjects for this paper. My agenda was one of diachronic understanding of the fascinating parallels between Classical Greece and the 19th century, albeit on a very specific subject - the female figural device, both in architecture and in art. Every element considered capable of defining the cultural production of its time was addressed. That meant individual and social axioms, political structures, aesthetic and philosophical considerations and the dichotomy technology-methodology.

The theoretical emphasis on interpretation, as absolute and fundamental to every experience in life (i.e., radical hermeneutics), belongs to Heidegger: people live socially, always with others, and they live historically - their experiences of the world change in time. Every new interaction results in a new interpretation of the situation, object, or experience, and is colored by every previous cultural and independent engagement, and affects every future interaction.74

The previous assertion, made by Alexandra L. Lesk in her Ph.D. thesis, perfectly summarizes what I pre-consciously knew, but have since come to understand, over the course of this work. Art is not created in a vacuum. One could in fact apply the fundamentals of chaos theory to cultural production - everything is a product of some degree of interaction, be it either at its surface or inside its core.

References

1. Alexandra L. Lesk, A Diachronic Examination of the Erechtheion and Its Reception (Ph.D thesis), Cincinnati, 2004, p.71
   http://classics.uc.edu/~lesk/Thesis-docs/PHD%20UMI%2011-ii-05.pdf
   Accessed 30-03-2005
   Some authors also propose Kallikrates and Iktinos as the architects. Alkamenes was a student of Pheidias. Michael Lahanas, Greek Architecture: The Erechtheion, February 2, 2005
   http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/Architect.htm
   Accessed 27-03-2005
2. Lesk, 2004, pp.64-71
3. Styles/Periods, Wikipedia, 2005
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_in_Ancient_Greece#Styles.2Fperiods
   Accessed 24-03-2005
4. Classical Orders - Greek Orders, Wikipedia, 2005
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_orders#Greek_orders
   Accessed 24-03-2005.
5. Lesk, 2004, p.64, 68
6. Peloponnesian War, Wikipedia, 2005
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponnesian_War
   Accessed 25-03-2005.
7. Lesk, 2004, p.21
8. Based on Joan Rufach, Pena, Angelina Toà, Método para a Interpretação de Obras de Arte, Planeta Editora, 1990, p.54
9. 1 Attic foot = 308.2795mm
   

   Attached to the southwest corner of the main building is a podium 2.504 m high on which stand six over life-size female statues, four in the front, and one on each return. [...] The eastern block of the podium is 5 Attic feet wide [1.541 m], while the other three on the front are only 4 Attic feet wide [1.233 m]. The Maiden Porch has an opening in its northeast corner that leads to a stairway which descends and turns right. The steps descend through a door 1.264 m wide, which opens onto the West Corridor of the main building. (Lesk, 2004, p.13)

10. The crepidoma is sub-divided into the leveling course, the stereobate and the stylobate, where the columns stand; the column divides itself into base, shaft and capital; the entablature is composed of architrave, frieze and cornice; these are further divided into other elements.
11. According to Vitruvius, early Ionic proportions dictated that the columns' height to be eight diameters. In his time, that proportion had been changed to nine diameters.
12. Lesk, 2004, p.479
13. A colonnaded porch in front of the cellas, the main chamber, with 4 columns in front
14. Maidens
15. John Porter, Greek Temple Design, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, September 21, 2004
    http://duke.usask.ca/~porterj/CourseNotes/temples.html
    Accessed 27-03-2005.
16. She develops the description saying, These female architectural elements support a slightly sloping roof with an Ionic architrave whose fascia are decorated with discs and a cornice with dentils. Lesk, 2004, p.21
17. The tomb of Kekrops
18. The overt symbolism of the Maiden Porch must be assessed diachronically as it had different meanings during different cultural horizons.2004, p.8
19. As opposed to the Doric order use of manly proportions:

    [6] 6. Wishing to set up columns in that temple, but not having rules for their symmetry, and being in search of some way by which they could render them fit to bear a load and also of a satisfactory beauty of appearance, they measured the imprint of a man's foot and compared this with his height. On finding that, in a man, the foot was one sixth of the height, they applied the same principle to the column, and reared the shaft, including the capital, to a height six times its thickness at its base. Thus the Doric column, as used in buildings, began to exhibit the proportions, strength, and beauty of the body of a man. [7] 7. Just so afterwards, when they desired to construct a temple to Diana in a new style of beauty, they translated these footprints into terms characteristic of the slenderness of women, and thus first made a column the thickness of which was only one eighth of its height, so that it might have a taller look. At the [p. 104] foot they substituted the base in place of a shoe; in the capital they placed the volutes, hanging down at the right and left like curly ringlets, and ornamented its front with cymatia and with festoons of fruit arranged in place of hair, while they brought the flutes down the whole shaft, falling like the folds in the robes worn by matrons. Thus in the invention of the two different kinds of columns, they borrowed manly beauty, naked and unadorned, for the one, and for the other the delicacy, adornment, and proportions characteristic of women. Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, Morris Hicky Morgan (trans.), Cambridge: Harvard University Press. London: Humphrey Milford. Oxford University Press. 1914

20. I.e. Maiden Porch of the Erechtheion and the Corinthian Caryatid Portico, respectively. Additionally, there are examples of Doric structures using atlantes, the male counterpart of the caryatids, such as the Doric Persian Portico. These are all referenced in Margaret D'Evelyn's paper Varietà and the Caryatid Portico in Daniele Barbaro's Commentaries on Vitruvius. (Annali di Architectura 10-11, Rivista del Centro intercionazionale di Studi di Architectura Andrea Palladio di Vicenza, 1998-99)
21. For a detailed discussion on the polemic surrounding the nomenclature used, vide Alexandra L. Lesk's paper on The Reception of Vitruvius: the Conflation of "Caryatid' and the Erechtheion 'korai' in Augustan Rome (Manuscript accepted for Myth and Image: Augustan Rome, Egypt and the East, Gorgias Press, no date)
    http://classics.uc.edu/~lesk/Thesis-docs/Lesk%20Vitruvius%20Caryatid%20Erechtheion.pdf
    Accessed 20-03-2005.
22. Perhaps more importantly, she points out another, overlooked, discrepancy in De Architectura: the caryatid's association with the Doric order, of typical manly proportions
23. Lesk, n/d, pp.2-3.
24. In ancient Greek architecture, the first structure (550 BC) using the device of the caryatid (q.v.). Martin L. Wolf, Dictionary of the Arts, Philosophical Library, New York, 1951, p.169
25. Lesk, n/d, p.3
    http://classics.uc.edu/~lesk/Thesis-docs/Lesk%20Vitruvius%20Caryatid%20Erechtheion.pdf
    Accessed 20-03-2005.
26. A circular structure with a ring of columns only and no walls dedicated to the burial place of one receiving posthumous veneration [or] a shrine or sanctuary of a demi-god or hero. Richard Stillwell, MacDonald, William L. McAlister, Marian Holland. The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press. 1976
    http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0006%3Alabel%3D%23124
    Accessed 28-03-2005.
27. Lesk, 2004, p.102
28. _____p.104
29. ibid
30. 2004, p.108
31. Based on Rufach et al, 1990, p.60
32. The Parthenon and the Ionic Temple of Athena Nike are credited to Kallikrates. According to Plutarch, Iktinos would have been behind also the Parthenon, the Temple of Hephaestus and the temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae.
33. Vitruvius points to the use of a column diameter one ninth of the height, instead of one eighth, which had the effect of augmented slenderness.
34. Originally La Cariatide Tombée Portant Sa Pierre.
35. Rufach et al, 1990, p.168
36. The Salon's exhibits were almost invariably controlled by the conservative jury of the academy.
37. Rufach et al, 1990, p.168
38. When the Salon rejected, in 1863, Le déjeuner sur l'herbe by édouard Manet, on the grounds of academic inappropriateness, the Salon des Refusés was created as retaliation against the Academy's dominance. The artists that exhibited in it were later on called Impressionists, so named after the work Impression, soleil levant by Claude Monet.
39. Impressionism, Wikipedia, 2005
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism
    Accessed 19-03-2005.
40. ibid
41. Realism, Wikipedia, 2005
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism
    Accessed 19-03-2005.
42. These poems would influence much of Rodin's work. According to Rodin-Web, Truman Bartlett is said to have related The Fallen Caryatid directly to Baudelaire's poems.
43. Rodin, Wikipedia, 2005
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodin
    Accessed 18-03-2005.
44. Rodin first observed the front, the back and two profiles before beginning to shape 'the big mass as I see it, and as accurately as possible. [...] then turning my clay and my model successively, I compare them and perfect them.' [...] The artist 'places the model so that the light, standing out against the background, illuminates this profile.' Press Book, Musée Rodin, Paris, 2003, p.15
    http://www.musee-rodin.fr/images/cult.pdf/press_english.pdf
    Accessed 18-03-2005
45. ibid
46. Using lost wax casting, only one cast is possible, and the original is invariably destroyed.
47. Rodin, The Artchive quoting Kirk Varnedoe. (A Fine Disregard, Harry N Abrams; Reprint edition, April 1, 1994)
    http://www.artchive.com/artchive/R/rodin.html
    Accessed 18-03-2005.
48. Thinker project: a lack of information about a famous sculpture, Rodin.info, unknown date
    http://www.rodin.info/research/thinker.htm
    Accessed 18-03-2005.
49. An alternative version of The Crouching Woman combined with the Caryatid's stone, and yet another Caryatid carrying a sphere exist. Rodin Works: The Caryatid, A Damned Woman, Destiny, Sorrow, Rodin-Web
    http://rodin-web.org/works/1881_caryatid.htm
    Accessed 18-03-2005.
50. Musée Rodin, 2003, p.16 Also, the fact that the sculpture has the Alexis Rudier/Fondeur, Paris mark on it is another point in favor of its sand casting. Posthumous casts by the Rudier foundry, using the lost wax process, were usually marked Eugiene or Georges Rudier, Alexis' son and his nephew, respectively. During Rodin's lifetime, his bronzes were cast by Alexis Rudier, using almost exclusively the sand casting process.
51. Hoffman, M, Sculpture Inside and Out, Bonanza Books, New York 1939
52. Because of the nature of the casting process, there are multiple reproductions in existence. The one in analysis is the one found at the Musée Rodin in Paris, in front of the southern façade. Ludwig Goldscheider et al, Rodin, Phaidon Press, London, 1996, p.40, 117
53. Fallen Caryatid Carrying her Stone, Rodin-Art, date unknown
    http://www.rodin-art.com/list.asp
    Accessed 19-03-2005.
54. Sisyphus, Wilipedia, 2005
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus
    Accessed 20-03-2005.

55. Caryae, a state in Peloponnesus, sided with the Persian enemies against Greece; later the Greeks, having gloriously won their freedom by victory in the war, made common cause and declared war against the people of Caryae. They took the town, killed the men, abandoned the State to desolation, and carried off their wives into slavery [...] the architects of the time designed for public buildings statues of these women, placed so as to carry a load, in order that the sin and the punishment of the people of Caryae might be known and handed down even to posterity. Vitruvius, Book I

56. Other works in this group: The Metamorphoses of Ovid and Damned Women.
57. The women of Caryae were in fact married, according to Vitruvius.
58. Vide the Maiden Porch section. Lesk, The Reception of Vitruvius: the Conflation of "Caryatid' and the Erechtheion 'korai' in Augustan Rome, 2004
59. From 1801 to 1805, Lord Elgin shipped a number of items from the Athens' Acropolis to England. Among these was a maiden, incorrectly labeled as caryatid, taken from the southern porch of the Erechtheion
60. The Lamps of Greek Art, The Legacy of Greece, Livingstone R. W. (ed.), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1921, p.362
61. Berger, 1967, pp.661-663
62. Other authors have attempted an interpretation. Rilke characterized it: It bears, as in a dream one bears the impossible and finds no deliverance. Maria Rainer Rilke, Rodin, trans. Robert Firmage, Salt Lake City, 1982, p. 46
63. Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1961, p.304
    Rodin-Art's description of a plaster cast seems to support Heinlein's view:

    The work is an assault on, and deconstruction of, a twenty-five-hundred-year-old Western tradition of the standing female figure as a graceful architectural element. [...] For Rodin, the building that Fallen Caryatid is supposed to support has collapsed, yet the women, half-crushed, must still bear the weight of the stone. Fallen Caryatid Carrying her Stone, Rodin-Art

64. Press Book, 2003, p.15 & Hoffman, 1939, p.82
65. The other being Medardo Rosso. 1963, p.89
66. W. Francklyn Paris, French Arts & Letters and Other Essays, G. A. Baker & Co., Inc., New York, 1937, p.2
67. _____p.4
68. Rodin, The Artchive quoting Kirk Varnedoe, April 1, 1994
69. Selz, 1963, p.203
70. Vide the Cantor-Elsen Polemic. Walter Storch, The Anatomy of a Fraud, TBRNews.org, Issue 6, 1995
    http://tbrnews.org/Archives/a060.htm
    Accessed 24-03-2005.
71. Albert Elsen, Rodin Rediscovered, National Gallery of Art, Washington, New York Graphic Society, Boston
72. Robert Hughes, Into Modernism - Auguste Rodin, Nothing if not Critical - Selected Essays on Art and Artists, Harvill-Harper Collins, London, 1990, p.131
73. James Hall, Touch, Don't Touch - Art and Sculpture, New Statesman, July 24, 2000, p.2
74. A Diachronic Examination of the Erechtheion and Its Reception, 2004, p.5