Polykleitos: Revolutionizing the Classical Period
The attempt to create the perfectly proportionate sculpture during the Classical Period in Greece was a task sought out by many artists. Polykleitos, one of the well-known sculptors of the time, completed this task through his famous bronze statues. In doing so, Polykleitos revolutionized art.Polykleitos, also known as Polyclitus, worked in the third quarter of the fifth century BC, at the time the Parthenon was being built. Born in either Argos or Sicyon, Polykleitos was no Athenian, but rather represented the rather unique sculptural tradition of Southern Greece (Boardman, 102). He attended the school of Argos, where he was a contemporary of Pheidias (also spelled Phidias). Eventually, Polykleitos became the head of the Argive school (infoplease.com). Working mostly in bronze, Polykleitos' greatest works were of athletes and gods. They have been described as being stockier than Pheidias' sculptures at the Parthenon. Although none of the originals are known to still exist, many Roman marble copies have captured the beauty of Polykleitos' original sculptures (getty.edu). Polykleitos sought out to find the ideal bodily proportions for a human statue, which reflected the thought of the time that perfection could be fo
Another work of Polykleitos that has been identified through Roman reproductions is the Diadoumenos. There is no doubt in my mind that Polykleitos revolutionized the way art was created in Greece during the Classical Period and allowed the transformation to baroque-style art in the Hellenistic Period. Today, the Roman copy described herein can be viewed at the Naples Archeological Museum in Naples, Italy (Johnson, 62). Unfortunately, because of the value of the materials, the colossus was ultimately broken up in a looting spree. We do know, however, that the Kanon was concerned not with human anatomy, but rather with symmetria-the human body's ideal proportions (Boardman, 102). According to Pliny the Elder, who wrote in the first century CE, Polykleitos competed with several artists-including Pheidias, Kresilas, and a number of others-in creating a statue of an Amazon for the temple of Artemis at Ephesos. Polykleitos documented his work in a book called the Kanon, or "Rule"; unfortunately, it has been lost and can only be referenced through other ancient works and copies of his statues (Greek Art, Boardman, 157). The artists themselves were to judge which statue was the best. Nonetheless, Polykleitos was not satisfied with only showing how a human figure naturally stands. Some individuals even state that the story is just a "guide's tale" (Greek Art, Boardman, 175). (132)Due to the beauty of proportion in Polykleitos' Doryphoros, artists in the succeeding generations used the figure as their model (Richter, 120). Although most would agree that the Doryphoros is Polykleitos' most famous work, some would argue that the colossal cult statue of Hera was his greatest (Johnson, 62). His goal was to "impose order on human movement, to make it beautiful, to perfect it" (Kleiner & Mamiya, 132). In the Doryphoros, Polykleitos used contrapposto-the disposition of the human figure in which one part is turned in opposition to another part-in its "fully developed classical form" (Johnson, 62). In Fred Kleiner and Christin Mamiya's Gardner's Art through the Ages, a description of how Polykleitos used cross balance to make the perfect statue is provided:What appears at first to be a casually natural pose is, in fact, the result of an extremely complex and subtle organization of the figure's various parts.
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