Polykleitos


 * Polykleitos**



Polykleitos was a Greek sculptor from the high classical period and he is considered as one of the most important sculptors of the classical antiquity. Little is actually known about the life of Polykleitos but he was born in Argos or Sicyon and was taught by the famous teacher Ageladas of Argos. His most important contribution to art was his Cannon of Polykleitos which emphasized a counterbalance between tension and hip movement (chiastic balance). His most famous work was Doryphoros which was one of his sculptures which depicts his cannon. He shows the perfectly harmonious and balanced proportions of the human body in the sculpted form. A solid-built athlete with muscular features carries a spear balanced on his left shoulder. In the surviving Roman marble copies, a marble tree stump is added to support the weight of the marble. A characteristic of Polykleitos' Doryphoros is the classical contrapposto in the pelvis; the figure's stance is such that one leg seems to be in movement while he is standing on the other.