Tuesday, January 16, 2007

The world in his hands...
 
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This is the statue of Atlas that sits bang opposite the St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

I really like this statue and I think the first time I saw a semblance of it was in one of the Tom and Jerry cartoons. It felt strangely nice to stand there and take this shot.

The north-south axis of the armillary sphere on his shoulders points to the North Star as viewed from New York City. Laid across Atlas's shoulders is a wide, curved beam that displays a frieze of the traditional symbols for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Adjacent to Earth (over Atlas's right forearm) is a small crescent symbolizing the Moon. Affixed to one of the sphere's rings are symbols for twelve constellations through which the Sun passes during the year.

2 comments:

distantcolors said...

very nice :) but if id taken that shot id have taken it to appear as though he is carrying the building on his shoulders as opposed to that looking like a backdrop. :)

Prometheus said...

Be sure to do that when you get there :)