Flexing and flaunting for over a century... One muscle at a time.
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In Greek mythology, the atlante (also called a telamon), comes from the Greek Titan Atlas, who was condemned by Zeus to hold up the sky on his shoulders for eternity. In classical architecture it is a support column or pillar sculpted in the shape of a man, the male counterpart to the female caryatid. Its massive size - the oldest still around are over 24 feet tall - became a classic Beaux-Arts/early-20th-century Parisian decorative architectural feature, and this pair, sculpted by Sylvain Kinsburger for a post-Haussmannian apartment building on rue de Rivoli, has been around since 1905. - BPJ
