Vysyaschiysya at Rockefeller Center bronze Atlas (or Atlas, as it is also called otherwise) - one of the largest statues in New York. Together with its pedestal height of 14 meters, more than the four-story building.

In Greek mythology, Atlas - mighty Titan, who beat against the Olympian gods and sentenced them to keep it on the shoulders of the firmament. The statue carved American sculptor Lee Lawrie, the nature of creativity which consistently tended to Gothic, Beaux Arts and Art Deco. Atlanta, created in 1937, it is made in the style of Art Deco. Contemporaries criticized the sculptor for the figure of titanium supposedly had something to do with the appearance of the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini. The famous artist James Montgomery Flagg, who created the poster "I need you for the US Army '(with a demanding Uncle Sam), ironically suggested that Mussolini, of course, would like to see myself as this Atlanta.

The figure is really impressive: the exaggerated musculature, stylized outline of a powerful body. Atlanta is on the shoulders of six-meter armillary sphere, consisting of nested rings, symbolizing the celestial sphere. Armillary sphere invented in ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus, and before the invention of the telescope, it was the European main tool to determine the position of celestial bodies. The north-south axis Rockefeller Atlanta points to the North Star. On the wide curved beam, which lies on the shoulders of giants, represented the traditional symbols of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. To one of the rings affixed symbols twelve constellations through which the Sun passes during the year.

The weight of the statue - seven tons, is the largest sculpture of Rockefeller Center. Some time ago it was restored - for the past decade, a plurality of layers of varnish and wax deposited on the bronze, distorted not only its color but also the shape of the individual parts. The statue was cleaned of layers and covered with a layer of shiny acrylic, preserving the natural color of the patina.

It is this statue is a symbol of objectivism, philosophical movement created emigrant from Soviet Russia, writer Ayn Rand. The most famous of its work, by which was recently the film - "Atlas Shrugged." The novel describes the coming to power of the Socialists in the United States, the transition to a planned economy and the subsequent resulting collapse of the once prosperous economy. The book had a huge impact on the minds of Americans.