A pair of Elizabethan carved oak and polychrome decorated figural pilasters late 16th century

in the form of a caryatid and atlante surmounted by an Ionic capital, the flesh coloured bodies above swags and ribbon tied tassels on stipple painted waisted supports

Very decorative and it is rare to see original paint. One ionic capital is chipped. The base of each is chipped. Possibly part of an architectural scheme. Paint is dirty and there losses - but this is totally consistent with the age of these rare pieces.
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After the columns of the classical orders, caryatids and atlantes, generally called terms, were the most fundamental elements of Renaissance and Mannerist architectural decoration. All have an impeccable classical ancestry: caryatids originated in the figures supporting the South porch of the Erechtheum on the Acropolis in Athens and were depicted in illustrated editions of Vitruvius; atlantes, the male equivalent were derived from Atlas in his mythological role as supporter of the heavens; terms were originally ancient Greek boundary stones topped with a carved head of Hermes. Terms were common elements in printed designs in the 16th century. Jacques Androuet Ducerceau from the school of Fontainebleau, Agostino Veneziano and Jean Mignon, were amongst others, responsible for the print sources. Famous examples of carved terms include the chimneypieces at Loseley Hall, Surrey, Red Lodge, Bristol, Haddon Hall, Derbyshire and the great gallery in Middle Temple Hall, Holborn, London.