A Caryatid

A veiled woman stands in a frontal pose, dressed in heavy, layered classical drapery that falls to her feet. She supports a flat architectural capital upon her head and holds a long, thin vertical staff or rod in her right hand. This study demonstrates the artist's focus on balanced proportions and the adaptation of the human form into a structural element.

This drawing reflects the Renaissance recovery of Vitruvian architectural principles, where the human body is viewed as the 'measure of all things' and a microcosm of cosmic order. Caryatids were often interpreted in Neoplatonic circles as symbols of the soul's role in supporting the weight of the material world while aspiring toward the divine.