The Doryphoros of Polykleitos

The Doryphoros (Greek δορυφόρος, lit. "Spear-Bearer"; Latinized as Doryphorus) is one of the best known sculptures of the ancient classical era in Western Art and an early example of Greek classical contrapposto.

Polykleitos

Doryphoros (side view).

440BC The Greek sculptor Polykleitos designed this work as an example of the "canon" or "rule", showing the perfectly harmonious and balanced proportions of the human body in the sculpted form. A solid-built athlete with muscular features is leaning on a spear. The original bronze statue is lost. In the surviving marble copies, dating back to the ancient Roman era, a marble tree stump is added to support the weight of the marble. A characteristic of Polykleitos' Doryphoros is the classical contrapposto in the pelvis; the figure's stance is such that one leg seems to be in movement while he is standing on the other.

Some time in the second century AD, Galen wrote about the Doryphoros as the perfect visual expression of the Greeks' search for harmony and beauty, which is rendered in the perfectly proportioned sculpted male nude:

It [beauty] arises not in the commensurability or "symmetria" [ie proportions] of the constituent elements [of the body], but in the commensurability of the parts, such as that of finger to finger, and of all the fingers to the palm and wrist, and of those to the forearm, and of the forearm to the upper arm, and in fact, of everything to everything else, just as it is written in the Canon of Polyclitus. For having taught us in that work all the proportions of the body, Polyclitus supported his treatise with a work: he made a statue according to the tenets of his treatise, and called the statue, like the work, the 'Canon.'

The Doryphorus (Spear Bearer) is believed by some academics to be this statue.^{[citation needed]}

In another work Galen further observes:

Modellers and sculptors and painters, and in fact image-makers in general, paint or model beautiful figures by observing the ideal form in each case, that is, whatever form is most beautiful in man or in the horse or in the cow or in the lion, always looking for the mean within each genus. And a certain statue might perhaps also be commended, the one called the 'Canon' of Polyclitus; it got such a name from having precise commensurability of all the parts to one another.

Other uses

Doryphoros or doryphorus can be used for the original work by Polykleitos, or to describe any sculpture imitating this pose, whether the figure actually bears a spear or not; e.g., the Augustus of Prima Porta which is ostensibly modelled on the Doryphoros.

In Modern Greek, the term means "satellite"; the term φυσική δορυφόρος (physike doryphoros) is used for natural satellites, while artificial satellite is a τεχνητός δορυφόρος (tekhnetos doryphoros). See el:Τεχνητός Δορυφόρος.

References

• Herbert Beck, Peter C. Bol, Maraike Bückling (Hrsg.): Polyklet. Der Bildhauer der griechischen Klassik. Ausstellung im Liebieghaus-Museum Alter Plastik Frankfurt am Main. Von Zabern, Mainz 1990 ISBN 3-8053-1175-3
• Detlev Kreikenbom: Bildwerke nach Polyklet. Kopienkritische Untersuchungen zu den männlichen statuarischen Typen nach polykletischen Vorbildern. "Diskophoros", Hermes, Doryphoros, Herakles, Diadumenos. Mann, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-7861-1623-7
• Greek Ideas & Values: (adapted fr The Art of Greece, translated by J.J. Pollitt)

See also

• Discophoros
• Diadumenos

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Doryphoros". Image Credit.

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