For the most part, the Greeks created their free-standing sculpture in bronze, but because bronze is valuable and can be melted down and reused, sculpture was often recast into weapons.

Sculpture
Doryphoros/Forms

contrapposto, (Italian: “opposite”), in the visual arts, a sculptural scheme, originated by the ancient Greeks, in which the standing human figure is poised such that the weight rests on one leg (called the engaged leg), freeing the other leg, which is bent at the knee.

Polykleitos sought to portray the perfect man and to impose order on human movement in his work Doryphoros. He achieved his goals through harmonic proportions and a system of cross balance for all parts of the body.

The Doryphoros (Spear Bearer) or Kanon, sculpted c. 440 BC, was said to have exemplified those tenets. The weight of the body on one foot, the other flexed and at rest, is a stance called the “chiastic” pose.

The Doryphoros is the culmination of the evolution in Greek statuary from the Archaic kourous to the Kritios Boy to the Riace warrior. The contrapposto is more profound then ever before in a standing statue. His aim was to impose order on human movement, to make it “beautiful” to “perfect” it.

Polykleitos sought to capture the ideal proportions of the human figure in his statues and developed a set of aesthetic principles governing these proportions that was known as the Canon or “Rule.” In formulating this “Rule,” Polykleitos created a system based on a simple mathematical formula in which the human body …

Definition. Contrapposto was historically an important sculptural development, for its appearance marks the first time in Western art that the human body is used to express a more relaxed psychological disposition. This gives the figure a more dynamic, or alternatively relaxed appearance.

The renowned Greek sculptor Polykleitos designed a sculptural work as a demonstration of his written treatise, entitled the Κανών (or ‘Canon’), translated as “measure” or “rule”), exemplifying what he considered to be the perfectly harmonious and balanced proportions of the human body in the sculpted form.

Doryphoros from Pompeii. (Marie-Lan Nguyen/ CC BY 2.5 ) Apart from its proportions, the statue is also noted for its contrapposto (which means ‘counterpoise’) stance. This pose is achieved by placing more weight on one leg, which causes the rest of the body to react in such a way that balance may be attained.

The Doryphoros typifies the new approach to depicting the human form in the high Classical Period of Greek art. Artists placed increasing emphasis on the ideal man, who was depicted in heroic nudity with a young, athletic body that was naturalistic in musculature and pose.

He certainly represents an artistic ideal. This marble sculpture is a Roman copy of a Greek original by Polykleitos, who was known for perfecting the contrapposto pose and developing a mathematical ratio for ideal proportions in the human body.

If you look at their art, you may think so. Doryphoros (translated from Greek as ‘Spear-Bearer), was a statue created during the 5th century BC. The fine detail for an idealized human anatomy and natural pose of this statue inspired Romans to create several copies and lucky for us, some of the replicas have survived until today.