Polykleitos
Background:
Polykleitos was a Greek sculptor from the city-state of Sikyon who is mostly known for creating a “perfect” human figure simply by using math based on the human body. This method was so effective that it is still currently taught to this day. Despite this great achievement he actually had a very humble beginning by creating statues of athletes out of bronze which, he learned to work with at the school of Argive. Polykleitos however, was a bit different than most greek sculptures at the time and focused on the human features rather than the gods. He was often times referred to as the best sculptor of man.
Doryphorus:
But because of his training at Argive he eventually created the Doryphoros or spear bearer. Some key features that made this particular human figure so special were the statue’s stance and new approach to creating a human body. It shifted its weight onto one foot while keeping certain parts of the body relaxed and others in a more tense state, helping to create a more realistic human element. It also took his idea of the perfect human that he created using math alone and paved a new path for other sculpture artists (not just Greek) to follow. Many historians believe that the Doryphoros also represents Achilles, a famous Greek soldier, as well. Along with this statue though he created a book that he called the Kanon or rule that helped to explain his reasoning behind his mathematical equation.
Additional creations:
Another of his statues is called the Diadoumenos which uses the same design scheme as his Doryphoros. The actual figure itself is more refined than his previous work leading most to believe that this is a later sculpture made by him. A few historians believe that it could represent Apollo but a larger proportion think it is simply a human victor. Along with these two sculptures there is the gold-ivory statue of Hera, a most impressive statue constructed for the temple of Hera in Argos. All of these statues were done in the style of Contrapposto which was created to described his particular style of art.
Diadoumenous:
Legacy:
Now Polykleitos doesn’t have much more history other than these few statues because he only appears for a brief thirty year span in history. Along with this all of his works have technically been destroyed, but the Romans would go out of their way to recreate and preserve his works. This shows how mind-blowing his realization about the human body was. It was so advanced for his time that modern day sculpture artists still use his methods and teachings. The most famous of these people however, was Leonardo Da Vinci. Because of the Greeks, Leonardo was inspired to expand upon Polykleitos’ ideas and create the Vitruvian Man. Which is now known as the new ideal human.
Vitruvian Man:
