Engaged Capital with a Supporting (Caryatidal) Figure Flanked by Lions (c. 1125–1150): Art, History and Details

Engaged Capital with a Supporting (Caryatidal) Figure Flanked by Lions (c. 1125–1150) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This sculpture is an excellent example of the Romanesque sculptor’s ability to accommodate his subject to the format of the capital. Much of the artistic quality of this work derives from the skillful contrast and balance of rounded solids, deep voids, and shallow prismatic hollows. It also illustrates the love of fanciful subject matter in largely religious contexts. A capital is essentially the top element of a column, usually carved, that acts as a mediator between the column and the load it supports. In this way, the subject of this capital serves as a metaphor.

Object facts

• Title: Engaged Capital with a Supporting (Caryatidal) Figure Flanked by Lions
• Date: c. 1125–1150
• Culture: Western France, Vendée or Angoulême?, 12th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: limestone
• Dimensions: Overall: 34.3 x 47 x 34.3 cm (13 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 13 1/2 in.)
• Collection: MED - Romanesque
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1963.477

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.