Monster Caryatid (late 500s): Art, History and Details

Monster Caryatid (late 500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This squatting monster with claws on its knees, braces its shoulders against an overhanging molding. The half-human, half-animal creature was likely part of a Buddhist cave-temple complex at Xiangtangshan, in Hebei Province, northwest China. Found in the lower registers of stone monuments of either architectural structures or statues of Buddhist deities, such monsters had a supportive function. Their scary appearance was believed to keep evil spirits away from the sacred sites.

Object facts

• Title: Monster Caryatid
• Date: late 500s
• Culture: China, possibly from Xiangtangshan, Northern Qi dynasty (550–577)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Limestone
• Dimensions: Overall: 28 x 40 cm (11 x 15 3/4 in.)
• Collection: China - Southern Dynasties
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1957.357

A detail from the museum

The complex of Buddhist cave temples at Xiangtangshan, “Mountain of Echoing Halls,” is a central achievement of the Northern Qi period.

Collection credit

Anonymous Gift

Further reading listed by the museum

• Weisberg, Gabriel P. and H. W. Janson. Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975.
• Watson, William. L'art de l'ancienne Chine. Paris: Mazenod, 1979.
• Xu, Jin. "Monsters on an Imperial Stone Base: Reconstructing Seven Stone Panels from Xiangtangshan." Orientations 55, no. 1 (January/February 2024): 12–20.

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.