The spear-bearer of Polykleitos

The fragment preserves the upper body, including the upper thighs and the right arm, of the Spear-bearer (Doryphoros) by the sculptor of the zenith of the classical era, Polyclitus. The statue is regarded as the ‘classical’ work of art per se. Polyclitus also wrote a text known as the ‘canon’ to explain his work, in which he established the proportions of the human body in terms of numerical relationships. He used the units of the body itself as units of measurement; for example, the relationship of one finger to another, to the hand, to the lower arm, to the whole arm, etc. In the Doryphoros, the principles of the ‘canon’ are particularly clearly demonstrated. The statue became famous for this reason and was reproduced very frequently and fairly accurately. The original was made of bronze. In the Doryphoros, the ponderation – the differentiation of weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing parts in a body subject to gravity – is further developed into what is known as ‘contrapposto’. The non-weight-bearing foot is taken right back so that it is supported only by the ball of the foot, which renders the pose very unstable. With reference to the horizontal and vertical axes, he hips and the linea alba have been shifted to an extreme degree, but they are brought into balance by other criss-crossing relationships (chiasmus). On the weight-bearing side, the arm is relaxed and hang beside the body; on the other side, the arm which once carried the spear is actively bent. The slant of the pelvis is balanced by the opposing slant of the shoulders. Following the oscillation of the body, the head was turned towards the weight-bearing leg. Force and counterforce are thus combined in a rationally devised harmony, the ‘contrapposto’. The pronouncedly block-like shape of the body – described by the art critics of antiquity as rectangular, four-square (quadratus) – also contributes to the impression of the body as a functional structure of assembled members.