Atlas (architecture)

A Atlant ( stress on the second syllable) is - according to Atlas, the Titan sky carrier from Greek mythology - in architecture is an architectural support in the form of an often -than-life, male muscular figure that is attached instead of a column to certain architectural elements such as beams to carry or consoles. The Roman name for Atlant is Telamon. Atlases have in contrast to the caryatid arms raised and often hunched over the upper body to make the wearing of the load on the shoulders vividly. The use was limited in the architecture not the Greek or Roman antiquity, but was also at later times, as in the renaissance, baroque, rococo, classicist or in the Neo-Renaissance and Neoclassicism of historicism in the 19th century with the characteristic of Mannerism. As the caryatid is also the Atlant before Herme.