| Description: |
By Polykleitos of Argos. Roman copy from Pompeii, made after bronze original sometime before 79 A.D. Naples, Museo Nazionale. H. 2.12m. Naked youth stands with his weight on the right leg, left leg back with only the toes on the ground. The right arm hangs at the side; the left arm is bent to hold the (originally wooden) spear. The torso is twisted to the right, and the head is turned in the same direction. The musculature is strongly developed and simplified in this piece, which is "a mechanical production which excites little aesthetic pleasure", according to Robertson (1981: 113). |
| Discussion: |
This statue was also known in antiquity as the Canon, since it encapsulated all the mathematical certainties that Polykleitos applied to art. The Doryphoros was sculpted primarily to demonstrate the system of ideal proportion inherent in the human body. For ancient views of the statue, see Galen De Placitis Hippocratis et Platonis 5; Quintilian 5.12.21; Plutarch Moralia 45c. See also Robertson 1981: 112ff., 136ff., 165, fig. 155; Stewart 1990: 160-3, 264-6; 378-382 (ills.). |
