Caryatid. Painting by Ameedo Modigliani

Famous Art work & Drawing by Amedo Modigalini

Caryatid – lime stone painting

Modigliani had transferred one lime stone block into a kneeling caryatid. It was too heavy for the artist to cart away from the vacant place where he carved it. His friends rescued the sculpture after his death in 1920. It is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Prior to his arrival in Paris, Modigliani expressed his intention to become a sculptor. His seeing the African art works was a turning point in this sense and he executed the “Heads” and caryatids inspired by African masks. At Montmartre, which was the center of Parisian Art, he met the Roman Sculptor, Constantin Brancusi, who encouraged him to take up direct carving in stone. For about five years, he almost abandoned painting and devoted himself to sculpture. First the used marble and then softer ones such as sand-stone and lime-stone were carved. His aim behind the lime-stone carving was to endow with a massive and timeless look.

Though Modigliani was too poor to afford marble or lime stone, he carved that with grace in a precautious manner, fudging nothing. The lime-stone caryatid – an architectural motif, female figure carrying load – gives ideas about sculptural compression.

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