Atlas Carrying the Weight of the World

Lee Lawrie's bronze Atlas, installed in 1937 at Rockefeller Center, shows the Titan kneeling under an open armillary sphere — the heavens rendered as rings rather than a solid globe. At seven tons and forty-five feet to the top of the sphere, it faces Fifth Avenue across from St. Patrick's, a piece of Art Deco mythology in the middle of Midtown.

Photographed May 2013, in color. The dark bronze rings of the sphere sit against the limestone tower behind and a blue sky framed by green leaves. Color holds the contrast — weathered metal, pale stone, summer sky — that makes the Titan feel like he is holding up the whole scene.