Description of the attraction
Towering in Rockefeller Center, the bronze Atlas (or Atlas, as it is also called) is one of the largest statues in New York. Together with the pedestal, its height is 14 meters, more than that of a four-storey building.
In Greek mythology, Atlas is a mighty titan who fought against the Olympian gods and for this he was sentenced to hold the firmament on his shoulders. The statue was sculpted by the American sculptor Lee Laurie, whose nature of work was consistently inclined towards Gothic, Boz-Art and Art Deco. Atlant, created in 1937, is made in the Art Deco style. Contemporaries criticized the sculptor for the fact that the figure of the titan allegedly had something in common with the appearance of the leader of fascist Italy, Benito Mussolini. The famous artist James Montgomery Flagg, who created the poster "I Need You for the US Army" (featuring demanding Uncle Sam), ironically suggested that Mussolini would certainly like to see himself like this Atlas.
The figure is truly impressive: exaggerated musculature, stylized outlines of a powerful body. On the shoulders of Atlanta lies a six-meter armillary sphere, consisting of nested rings, symbolizing the celestial sphere. The armillary sphere was invented in ancient Greece by the astronomer Hipparchus, and before the invention of the European telescope, it was the main instrument for determining the position of celestial bodies. The north-south axis of Rockefeller Atlanta points to the North Star. The wide, curved beam resting on the giant's shoulders features the traditional symbols of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Attached to one of the rings are symbols of the twelve constellations through which the Sun passes during the year.
The statue weighs seven tons and is the largest sculpture in the Rockefeller Center. Some time ago, it was restored - over the past decades, many layers of varnish and wax applied to the bronze have distorted not only its color, but also the shape of individual parts. The statue has been cleaned of layers and covered with a shiny acrylic layer that retains the color of its natural patina.
It is this statue that is considered a symbol of objectivism, a philosophical movement created by the writer Ayn Rand, an emigrant from Soviet Russia. Her most famous work, on which a film was recently staged, is Atlas Shrugged. The novel describes the rise to power in the United States of socialists, the transition to a planned economy and the subsequent collapse of the once flourishing economy. The book had a huge impact on the minds of Americans.
