Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone

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.