Zoo Caryatids

In 1425-1427 Donatello collaborated with Michelozzo on the funerary monument of Antipope John XXIII for the Battistero (in Florence).

Here the lions are placed under the coffin as a kind of Caryatids. Are there such cases in Antiquity?

Caryatids

Erechteion

Human figures as columns at Athens, V BC. Was that the first time ever?

Christ as Young Zeus

Christ with Cross

Michelangelo (1475 - 1564) imagined the Saviour, the Prophets and the saints in the way the ancient artists imagined their gods. Was he the first post-ancient who did so?