Friday, 18 November 2016
High Classical
Doryphoros
- Marble copy from Pompeii
- Dates 120-50 BCE
- Original bronze was around 440 BCE
- By Polykleitos
- 6 ft 1/2
- Polykleitos used distinct proportions when creating his work, for example the ratio
head to body size is one to seven
- Doryphoros is in the Naples Museum
- Also known as the spear bearer
- Exemplum of male beauty as conceived by the ancient Greeks
- He sought to capture the ideal proportions of the human figure
- Principles governing these proportions that was know as the Canon or “Rule”
- He created a system based on simple mathematical formula
- Manifested in the Doryphoros was the perfect expression of what the Greeks called
symmetria- not only encompassed a sense of proportion and balance, but was also an
exercise in contrasts
- Perfect form of contrapposto- weight rests on his right leg and freeing his left to bend
• in the process his right hip shifts up and the left down; the left shoulder raises
(tensed) and the right drops
• his body is brought to a state of equilibrium
• torso on left is extended and torso on the right is contracted
• Shows dynamic equilibrium
- Unlike those of earlier figures represented in action, both side views are intelligible
and harmonious
- Left side enlivened by angular elbow and bent knee
- Right with relaxed arm and vertical supporting leg animated by turn of the head
1
High Classical
Doryphoros
- Marble copy from Pompeii
- Dates 120-50 BCE
- Original bronze was around 440 BCE
- By Polykleitos
- 6 ft 1/2
- Polykleitos used distinct proportions when creating his work, for example the ratio
head to body size is one to seven
- Doryphoros is in the Naples Museum
- Also known as the spear bearer
- Exemplum of male beauty as conceived by the ancient Greeks
- He sought to capture the ideal proportions of the human figure
- Principles governing these proportions that was know as the Canon or “Rule”
- He created a system based on simple mathematical formula
- Manifested in the Doryphoros was the perfect expression of what the Greeks called
symmetria- not only encompassed a sense of proportion and balance, but was also an
exercise in contrasts
- Perfect form of contrapposto- weight rests on his right leg and freeing his left to bend
• in the process his right hip shifts up and the left down; the left shoulder raises
(tensed) and the right drops
• his body is brought to a state of equilibrium
• torso on left is extended and torso on the right is contracted
• Shows dynamic equilibrium
- Unlike those of earlier figures represented in action, both side views are intelligible
and harmonious
- Left side enlivened by angular elbow and bent knee
- Right with relaxed arm and vertical supporting leg animated by turn of the head
1
