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Rough Sketch of the Caryatid from the Erechtheion now in the British Museum John Ruskin
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Curator’s description:
Description
The drawing shows a rather worn caryatid from the hips up; her head is done in finer detail than the rest of the drawing.
The drawing is of the single caryatid from the Erechtheion, part of the Acropolis in Athens, in the collections of the British Museum, carved c.420 (the remaining caryatids are in Athens). It was originally placed on the main front of the Erechtheion's caryatid porch (the south porch), where it was the second figure from the left.
Cook and Wedderburn and Taylor both state that this drawing is the one which accompanied Ruskin's letter to Henry Acland in the autumn of 1864. However, there is no evidence as to whether Ruskin returned the drawing to Acland or not (for the letter, XVIII.xxxv).
The drawing was first listed in the collection in 1871, as no. 22 C in the Educational Series, part of Case II, "Elementary Illustrations of Greek Design", and entitled "Rough Sketch of the Sixth Cora of the Pandroseium [sic], now in the British Museum". It remained in the same position, albeit renumbered as no. 36, in the 1874 catalogue of the series; and was not mentioned in Ruskin's 1878 reorganisation of the series. Ruskin's use of the name 'Pandroseion' for part of the Erechtheion is at odds with modern usage, which calls the whole complex the Erechtheion.
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Details
- Artist/maker
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John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)after anonymous Greek (sculptor)
- Object type
- drawing
- Material and technique
- watercolour and bodycolour over graphite on off-white paper
- Dimensions
- 473 x 297 mm
- Associated place
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- Europe › Greece › Attica › Athens › Athens › Acropolis › Erechtheion › Erechtheion (subject)
- Inscription
- Verso:
top left corner, in graphite: P22
top, centre, in graphite: E36
bottom right, the Ruskin School's stamp
- Provenance
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Presented by John Ruskin to the Ruskin Drawing School (University of Oxford), 1875; transferred from the Ruskin Drawing School to the Ashmolean Museum, c.1949.
- No. of items
- 1
- Accession no.
- WA.RS.ED.036
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Subject terms allocated by curators:
Subjects
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References in which this object is cited include:
References
Taylor, Gerald, ‘John Ruskin: A Catalogue of Drawings by John Ruskin in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford’, 7 fascicles, 1998, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, no. 088
Ruskin, John, Catalogue of the Educational Series (London: Smith, Elder, 1871), cat. Educational no. 22.C
Ruskin, John, Catalogue of the Educational Series (London: Spottiswoode, 1874), cat. Educational no. 36
Ruskin, John, ‘The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogues, Notes and Instructions’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 21, cat. Educational no. 36
Location
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- Western Art Print Room
Position in Ruskin’s Collection
Ruskin's Catalogues
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Ruskin's Educational series, 1st ed. (1871)
22 C Rough sketch of the sixth Cora of the Pandroseium, now in the British Museum. M -
Ruskin's Educational series, 2nd ed. (1874)
36. Rough sketch of the sixth Cora of the Pandroseium, now in the British Museum. M
