Polykleitos: Doryphoros

Polykleitos, Doryphoros(Spear Doryphoros). Roman copy from the palaestra, Pompeii, Italy, of a bronze statue of ca. 450-440 BCE. Marble, 6'11'' high.

Doryphoros, was carved between 450 and 440 B.C, high Classical Greece, by the sculptor, Polykleitos. Polykleitos carved Doryphoros as the demonstration of the idea in his treatise “ Canon”, and he named this statue Canon as well to support his theory. Under the influence of the philosopher Pythagoras, he believes that the perfect statue with the balanced proportion, movement and harmony can be created by using the encompassing mathematical formula. Contrapposto an Italian term that of counterpose which is used in visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs was applied to Doryphoros. Cross balance can be found all over the sculpture, the supporting right led and the straight right arm provide the stability that the left part’s dynamically limbs needed. The right arm and the left leg are relaxed when the supporting and straight right leg is opposite to the flexed left arm. The head is turned to the right while the hips are slightly to the left. Although his leg is flexed and gives people the sense that he is moving. But the fact is that he is standing still and full of movement through the positioning of his limps and body parts. Doryphoros had greet influence in ancient Greece, it is considered as the culmination of the evolution of Greek statuary. Doryphoros presents a statue with far more conrapposto applied to it than any statue before the creation of itself, it presents not only the naturalism of body proportion but also the harmonic movement.