Cleveland Museum of Art

Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone

Date

1880–81?

Medium

bronze

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Modern European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

A caryatid is a column in classical Greek architecture carved to resemble a female figure. Rodin originally designed Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone to serve as one of the figures on his monumental sculptural doorway The Gates of Hell . While Greek caryatids are typically draped, Rodin stripped the body of clothing and depicted the caryatid crushed under the weight of a stone, symbolically suggesting a state of physical suffering or emotional anguish. He exhibited Fallen Caryatid as an independent sculpture as early as 1883 and produced multiple versions in marble and bronze.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.