Anton Grauel, Atlant

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				Price: on request

Description

‘Atlant’ (‘Atlas’)
Biography: Anton Grauel

Created in Frankfurt in 1926.
High-relief of shell-limestone (Muschelkalk).

In classical European architecture, an ‘Atlant’ (also known as an ‘Atlas’) is a support sculpted in the form of a man, which may take the place of a column, a pier or a pilaster. 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. In Greek mythology Atlas was the Titan who was forced to hold the sky on his shoulders for eternity. The Roman term for such a sculptural support is Telamon, derived from a later mythological hero, Telamon, one of the Argonauts.
The Caryatid is the female precursor of this architectural form in Greece, a woman standing in the place of each column or pillar. Caryatids are found at the treasuries at Delphi and the Erechtheion on the Acropolis at Athens for Athene.

Anton Grauel created also a matching female counterpart in shell-limestone.
Left: the female counterpart of the male sculpture described above.
Right: the female counterpart figure in Grauels atelier in Berlin at 21 June 1936. Grauel left this sculpture in 1943 in the garden of his atelier in Berlin (the work is lost).
   

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