Thread by @VeraCausa9

This is the earliest extant photograph [negative] of the Porch of Caryatids, Erechteion taken in 1848 by Reverend George Wilson Bridges.

Forty-two yrs earlier, the sixth Caryatid was illegally removed by Lord Elgin in 1806.

See how by this time in 1848, a Caryatid copy replacement was already in place [1]

Engraving by architect James Stuart of a 'View of the Erechtheion', with Ottoman workmen excavating to reveal base of the prostasis underneath the six Caryatids, ca. 1748-51. Decades before Lord Elgin removed one of them. In the foreground is Stuart sketching.

Architect & artist James Stuart & Nicholas Revett traveled to Greece 1748-51, later published "Antiquities of Athens" (1762).This influential book was the first accurate record of Classical Greek architecture & served as the main source for architects for most of the 19th c. [1]

Erectheion caryatids study viewed in frontal-back-profile with mouldings of the capital & entablature on a larger scale, Athens 1751.

James Stuart & Nicholas Revett, "The Antiquities of Athens & Other Monuments of Greece", London, 1762-87

This 1806 watercolour by Edward Dodwell is a great testimony because it shows the brick column Lord Elgin left in place for the frontal Caryatid he illegally removed to London the same year this watercolour was made.

E. Dodwell- Southwest View of the Erechtheion, 1806

Irish painter Edward Dodwell travelled from 1801 to 1806 in Greece, he later published "A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece" (1819) & "Views in Greece", with thirty colored plates (1821) [1]

This is the pentelic marble caryatid from the Erechtheion, Lord Elgin illegally removed in 1806, now at the British Museum. She wears a peplos pinned on each shoulder. Her hair is braided and falls in a thick rope down her back. ca. 421-406 BC possibly sculpted by Alkamenes.

Alcamenes was an eminent ancient Greek sculptor of Lemnos and Athens, who flourished in the 2nd half of the 5th century BC. He was a younger contemporary & disciple of Phidias [1]

The Caryatid stands with her arms at her sides, and one knee (the left knee, in this case) slightly bent in contrapposto. Her peplos clings to the body. The long drapery folds hang directly to the ground, which reminds of the fluting on an Ionic column- at British Museum.

Though of the same height & build, similar attired & coiffed, the 6 Caryatids aren't the same: their faces, stance, draping & hair are carved separately.

The original 5 Caryatids are at the Acropolis Museum, Athens.The pedestal for the Caryatid removed to London remains empty.

From 2011-15 conservators at the Acropolis Museum in Athens clean the Caryatids using laser technology to stripped centuries of grime. Check this video on the restoration process.

Though the Atlante or Telamon
can be called the male version of the Caryatid, they're differences:

The Atlante is typically larger & his pose expresses a superhuman effort bearing the building's weight, while the Caryatid gracefully supports the entablature on her head.

1-One of the two Atlantes at the entrance of Museo Civico d'Arte Industriale e Quadreria Davia Bargellini, Bologna 1638.

2-One of the Caryatids replicas [since 1979] at the Erechtheion, overlooking Athens. [1]

For 2,500 years, the six graceful Athenian maidens known as Caryatids, have been a major Western architectural influence still seen around the world.

The four Caryatids at the Museum of Science and Industry, 1893 in Chicago.