Greek Sculptor Polykleitos: The Canon

243 Words1 Pages
The notorious Greek sculptor Polykleitos designed a sculptural work as a demonstration of his written treatise, entitled the Canon. This Canon was an example of what he considered to be the perfect, harmonious, and balanced proportions of the human body in the sculpted form. His canon was a theoretical work that was based on ideal mathematical proportions. Polykleitos was obsessed with the male figure and was determined to get the proportions correct, which he wound up doing. His sculpture, Doryphoros, featured chiastic and contrapposto in order to contribute naturalism to the image. In this sculpture Doryphoros was supposedly holding a spear in order to balance out the figure. Also in order to create a sense of counterbalance Polykleitos made