atlas

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atlas, atlantis (pl. atlantes, atlantides). Well-developed, Sculptured, male figure, rather than a column, used as a support for an entablature, or other architectural element, e.g. balcony. In form, the figure seems to sustain a great burden, and the arms and shoulders are used to hold up the superstructure, unlike a canephora, caryatid, or telamon, which supports the entablature on its head. Some sources state that atlantes (or gigantes) were Greek equivalents of Roman telamones, and that they were also called Persians, but male standing figures dressed in oriental fashion, telamones (often with Egyptianizing attributes), canephorae, and caryatides are always straight and unbowed, and are wholly unlike atlantes, which often occur in Baroque architecture, especially in Central Europe. The Greek temple of Zeus Olympius, Agraces (or Agrigentum), had atlantes standing on screen-walls between the engaged Doric columns to help to support the entablature with heads and arms (c.480 BC).

Bibliography

J. Curl (2001);
Dinsmoor (1950)

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