Мүсіндік тіректер: Атланттар тарихы мен архитектурадағы орны

Architectural support sculpted in the form of a man

In European architectural sculpture, an atlas (also known as an atlant, or atlante or atlantid; plural atlantes) is a support sculpted in the form of a man, which may take the place of a column, a pier or a pilaster. The Roman term for such a sculptural support is telamon (plural telamones or telamons). The Atlante is typically life size or larger; smaller similar figures in the decorative arts are called terms. The body of many Atlantes turns into a rectangular pillar or other architectural feature around the waist level, a feature borrowed from the term. The pose and expression of Atlantes very often show their effort to bear the heavy load of the building, which is rarely the case with terms and caryatids. The herma or herm is a classical boundary marker or wayside monument to a god which is usually a square pillar with only a carved head on top, about life size, and male genitals at the appropriate mid point. Figures that are rightly called Atlantes may sometimes be described as herms. Atlantes express extreme effort in their function, heads bent forward to support the weight of the structure above them across their shoulders, forearms often lifted to provide additional support, providing an architectural motif. Atlantes and caryatids were noted by the Roman late Republican architect Vitruvius, whose description of the structures, rather than surviving examples, transmitted the idea of atlantes to the Renaissance architectural vocabulary.

Not only did the Caryatids precede them, but similar architectural figures already had been made in ancient Egypt out of monoliths. Atlantes originated in Greek Sicily and in Magna Graecia, Southern Italy. The earliest surviving atlantes are fallen ones from the Early Classical Greek temple of Zeus, the Olympeion, in Agrigento, Sicily. Atlantes also played a significant role in Mannerist and Baroque architecture. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the designs of many buildings featured glorious atlantes that looked much like Greek originals. Their inclusion in the final design
for the portico of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg that was built for Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in the 1840’s made the use of atlantes especially fashionable. The Hermitage portico incorporates ten enormous atlantes, approximately three times life size, carved from Serdobol granite, which were designed by Johann Halbig and executed by the sculptor Alexander Terebenev.

Similar carved stone columns or pillars in the shape of fierce men at some sites of Pre Columbian Mesoamerica are typically called Atlantean figures. These figures are considered to be "massive statues of Toltec warriors".