Doryphoros by Polykleitos essays

Doryphoros by Polykleitos essays Sculptors of the Early and High Classical Grecian periods in art strived for perfection in creating the human form. They combined such features such as regular facial features, smooth skin, and particular body portions into an ideal of perfect beauty. Much as modern day advertisement has idealized the slender model as the new perfect female form. One such artist of the time was named Polykleitos of Argos. He was a well-known sculptor and art theorist. His aim in sculpting was to produce the perfect human figure using a mathematical equation to sculpt the body parts. It is believed that he used a basic unit ratio to measure the rest of the body parts. He set down his theory on the human for in a treatise known as The Canon and created a larger than life size sculpture he named Doryphoros and is now called The Spear Bearer. Unfortunately nobody knows exactly what that unit of measurement was because neither his treatise nor his statue survived the centuries. The Spear Bearer was created out of bronze, a popular medium at the time because of the ability to show more movement in bronze than in marble, which was the traditional medium. The Spear Bearer was one of the earliest statues to be show in the fully developed contraposto position. Earlier Greek artisans came up with the idea of contraposto. This is where all the weight of the figure in question appears to put all its weight onto one leg. This technique makes Doryphoros appear to be relaxed but a certain tension is there and he is ready to spring into action at a moments notice. Polykleitos combined this with a system called chiastic balance or cross balance where there is an active-passive sense of balance. The right arm of The Spear Bearer is relaxed and languid at his side while the left has tension from holding the spear over his shoulder. His right leg the opposite of the right arm and tensed t ...