The Beauty of Balance, Doryphoros

POLYKLEITOS, Doryphoros (spear bearer). Roman marble copy from Pompeii, Italy, after a bronze original of ca. 450-440BCE, 6’11”high. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

Classical Greece was a time of physical and mental vanity and of intellectual enlightenment. Physical beauty was pursued with athletics, displayed in competitions and idealised with god-like personifications, glorified athletes and war-heroes. Inner beauty was defined by personal conduct, and was sought after through education, research and philosophy. Aristocratic Greeks believed a balanced person to be beautiful in appearance and in personal conduct. These ideals were reflected in sculpture of this time, depicting beauty through the balance of naturalism and idealism. This balance is epitomised in Polykleitos, Doryphoros (spear bearer), Roman marble copy after a bronze original of ca. 450-440BCE. Polykleitos derived ideal form through the use mathematical principles, a comprehensive knowledge of the human body, an understanding of the human mind and the art of illusion. He balanced this ideal form with natural features to achieve optimum beauty.

Polykleitos, after study of the human figure (Maggi 2007, p. 126), and influenced by Pythagoras’s (571-497BCE) philosophy (Kleiner 2009, p.124), created a treatise titled the Canon which described a mathematical ratio and geometric relationship between every part of the body. To accompany his treatise, Polykleitos created a demonstration sculpture to the same title, Canon (Doryphoros is the best Roman copy of the original Canon), neither of which survive today. Doryphoros depicts a perfectly proportional and toned young athlete or warrior. This exact proportioning of the body implies a natural physique, but in essence is an idealised human form.

Doryphoros ‘s bodyweight rests on his right leg, which is tensed, as his left leg, relaxed, and further back than the right, appears to step forward. His tensed right leg contrasts his relaxed, straight right arm, and opposes his tensed left arm which carried a spear. The tilt of his hips to the left opposes his head turned to his right. Doryphoros’s realistic and natural pose is not by accident, but a carefully balanced example of contrapposto, that is, a demonstration of opposing stress on the body neutralised into perfect balance. Polykleitos created Doryphoros with a more exaggerated contrapposto than had been achieved before; his aim was to produce a greater balance with the more pronounced oppositions to create a greater harmony and impression of perfect beauty.

Polykleitos demonstrates a comprehensive knowledge of the motion of the human body with the beautifully toned and flexed muscles of Doryphoros. Even though Doryphoros’s proportions are a product of a complex set of mathematical ratios, his contrasting tensed and relaxed muscles show a deep understanding of the human bodies’ natural form. Idealised images such as Doryphoros were placed to offer inspiration to athletes, so depicts an image of beauty to aspire to, without being overly muscular and god-like as to be unachievable.

Classic Greek sculptors, with their understanding of the human mind and desires coupled with an ‘unequalled command of the vocabulary of representation’ (Stewart 2008, p.14) were able to create a feeling of inner being to appeal to the viewer. Doryphoros’s head tilts gently to engage, his expression sober. A far cry from the Archaic smile, Doryphoros’s carefully constructed expression promotes the presence of inner person. Looking at his toned body and sober expression, the viewer is able to impose one’s own fantasies and imagination onto Doryphoros, strengthening the illusion of his inner being.

Polykleitos has achieved beauty through the balance of naturalism and idealism in Doryphoros. Polykleitos created Kanon to rule the exact ideal proportions of the human body based on naturally formed men and formed Doryphoros by this rule. He used the balance of contrapposto to harmonise Doryphoros’s stance, and demonstrated natural anatomy with muscle definition. Polykleitos used his understanding of the human mind and artistic ability to give Doryphoros an inner being to engage the viewer. Doryphoros is, through a balance of idealism and naturalism, ‘an icon of male beauty, of the perfectly measured man’ (Stewart 2008, p. 46).

References

KLEINER, Fred S (2009), Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A Global History, Thirteenth Edition,

Thomson Wadsworth, Boston

MAGGI, Stefano (2007), Greece: History and Treasures of an Ancient Civilisation, White Star

Publishers, Vercelli

STEWART, Andrew (2008), Classical Greece and the Birth of Western art, Cambridge University Press,

New York

Bibliography

BELOZERSKAYA, Marina & LAPATIN, Kenneth (2004), Ancient Greece: Art, Architecture, and History,

The British Museum Trust, London

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Thomson Wadsworth, Boston

MAGGI, Stefano (2007), Greece: History and Treasures of an Ancient Civilisation, White Star

Publishers, Vercelli

SOLOMON, Robert C. & HIGGINS, Kathleen M. (1997), A passion for wisdom, Oxford University Press,

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STEWART, Andrew (2008), Classical Greece and the Birth of Western art, Cambridge University Press,

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