Editing Atlantis (section)

===Painting and sculpture===

Paintings of the submersion of Atlantis are comparatively rare. In the seventeenth century there was [[François de Nomé]]'s ''The Fall of Atlantis'', which shows a tidal wave surging toward a Baroque city frontage. The style of architecture apart, it is not very different from [[Nicholas Roerich]]'s ''The Last of Atlantis'' of 1928.

The most dramatic depiction of the catastrophe was [[Léon Bakst]]'s ''Ancient Terror'' (''Terror Antiquus'', 1908), although it does not name Atlantis directly. It is a mountain-top view of a rocky bay breached by the sea, which is washing inland about the tall structures of an ancient city. A streak of lightning crosses the upper half of the painting, while below it rises the impassive figure of an enigmatic goddess who holds a blue dove between her breasts. [[Vyacheslav Ivanov (poet)|Vyacheslav Ivanov]] identified the subject as Atlantis in a public lecture on the painting given in 1909, the year it was first exhibited, and he has been followed by other commentators in the years since.<ref>{{cite book |first=Pamela |last=Davidson |title=Cultural Memory and Survival: The Russian Renaissance of Classical Antiquity in the Twentieth Century |series=Studies in Russia and Eastern Europe |volume=6 |publisher=School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL |location=London, UK |year=2009 |url=http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/69111 |pages=5–15 }}</ref>

Sculptures referencing Atlantis have often been stylized single figures. One of the earliest was [[Einar Jónsson]]'s ''The King of Atlantis'' (1919–1922), now in the garden of his museum in [[Reykjavík]]. It represents a single figure, clad in a belted skirt and wearing a large triangular helmet, who sits on an ornate throne supported between two young bulls.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2452/3695419751_47fc7eecd1_b.jpg| title = 3695419751_47fc7eecd1_b.jpg |website=Flicker}}</ref> The walking female entitled ''Atlantis'' (1946) by [[Ivan Meštrović]]<ref>{{cite web| url = http://previews.123rf.com/images/shufu/shufu1212/shufu121200021/17025830-Atlantis-Ivan-Mestrovic-bronze-sculpture-1946-Stock-Photo.jpg| title = Atlantis: Ivan Mestrovic bronze sculpture 1946 Stock Photo.jpg|website=123rf.com}}</ref> was from a series inspired by ancient Greek figures<ref>Meštrović, Matthew, "Meštrović's American Experience", [http://www.studiacroatica.org/jcs/24/2411.htm ''Journal of Croatian Studies'', XXIV, 1983]</ref> with the symbolical meaning of unjustified suffering.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.weatherforecast.co.uk/europe/croatia/the-metrovi-gallery-17403.html| title = The Meštrović Gallery 7 Day Weather Forecast|website=weatherforecast.co.uk}}</ref>

In the case of the [[Brussels]] fountain feature known as ''The Man of Atlantis'' (2003) by the Belgian sculptor {{Interlanguage link|Luk van Soom|nl|3=Luk van Soom}}, the 4-metre tall figure wearing a diving suit steps from a plinth into the spray.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.brusselspictures.com/wp-content/photos/statues/de-man-van-atlantis.JPG| title = De man van Atlantis |publisher=Brussels Pictures}}</ref> It looks light-hearted but the artist's comment on it makes a serious point: "Because habitable land will be scarce, it is no longer improbable that we will return to the water in the long term. As a result, a portion of the population will mutate into fish-like creatures. Global warming and rising water levels are practical problems for the world in general and here in the Netherlands in particular".<ref>Kunstbus article quoting [http://www.kunstbus.nl/kunst/luk+van+soom.html "Luk van Soom"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216221819/http://www.kunstbus.nl/kunst/luk+van+soom.html |date=16 February 2016 }}</ref>
 
[[Robert Smithson]]'s ''Hypothetical Continent – Map of Broken Clear Glass: Atlantis'' was first created as a photographical project in [[Loveladies, New Jersey]], in 1969,<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.robertsmithson.com/photoworks/hc_atlantis_300.htm| title = Hypothetical Continent – Map of Broken Clear Glass: Atlantis|website=Robert Smithson|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107223810/http://www.robertsmithson.com/photoworks/hc_atlantis_300.htm|archive-date=7 January 2012}}</ref> and then recreated as a gallery installation of broken glass.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://worleygig.com/2015/07/27/modern-art-monday-presents-robert-smithson-map-of-broken-glass-atlantis| title = Modern Art Monday Presents: Robert Smithson, Map of Broken Glass (Atlantis)|publisher=Dia Beacon Gallery| date = 27 July 2015 }}</ref> On this he commented that he liked "landscapes that suggest prehistory", and this is borne out by the original conceptual drawing of the work that includes an inset map of the continent sited off the coast of Africa and at the straits into the Mediterranean.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.robertsmithson.com/drawings/map_of_broken_glass_374.htm| title = MAP OF BROKEN CLEAR GLASS (ATLANTIS)|publisher=Robert Smithson| access-date = 11 February 2016| archive-date = 21 March 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160321063927/http://robertsmithson.com/drawings/map_of_broken_glass_374.htm| url-status = dead}}</ref>