Polyclitus

Polyclitus: see Polykleitos.

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Polyclitus

 or Polycleitus or Polykleitos

(flourished 5th century BC, Greece) Greek sculptor. His Spear Bearer (c. 440 BC) was known as “the Canon” because it illustrated his book of that name, which set forth his theory of the ideal mathematical proportions of the human body and proposed that the sculptor strive for a dramatic counterbalance between the relaxed and tense body parts and the directions in which they move. His balanced and rhythmical bronze statues of young athletes, such as Man Tying on a Fillet (c. 420 BC), demonstrated his principles and freed Greek sculpture from its tradition of rigid frontal poses. With Phidias, Polyclitus was the most important Greek sculptor of his age.

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Polyclitus, Polycleitus, Polycletus

5th-century bc. Greek sculptor, noted particularly for his idealized bronze sculptures of the male nude, such as the Doryphoros

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Polyclitus 

(also Polyclitus of Argos; Polycleitus), ancient Greek sculptor and art theorist of the late fifth century B.C.

Polyclitus was one of the leading representatives of high classicism. His statues, executed mainly in bronze, have been lost and are known only from copies and from descriptions by writers of antiquity. Two fragments have been preserved from the artist’s canon of proportions. Influenced by Pythagoreanism, Polyclitus sought to substantiate and put into practice the law of ideal proportions, which he expressed as the proportions between various parts of the beautiful, harmoniously formed human body.

The statue Doryphorus (Spear Bearer, c. 440 B.C.) is the embodiment of the sculptor’s artistic principles. The Doryphorus represents a balance between the plastically opposite states of external serenity, hidden movement, and inner tension. Similar principles characterize Polyclitus’ later works, including the Wounded Amazon (c. 440–430 B.C.) and Diadumenos (Youth Wearing a Fillet of Victory, c. 420–410 B.C.). The latter work, which is more free in composition, may have been influenced by Phidias. Polyclitus also produced colossal chryselephantine statues, for example, the one of Hera for the Temple of Hera near Argos.

Possible historical authenticity and mythological idealization are combined so organically in Polyclitus’ work that the actual subject of his statues are unclear in many ways. Some scholars identify the Doryphorus as Achilles and the Diadumenos as Apollo or Paris. Polyclitus had many pupils and followers up to the period of the Roman Empire. Lysippus considered himself to be a student of Polyclitus.

REFERENCES

Nedovich, D. S. Poliklet. Moscow-Leningrad, 1939.
Miron i Poliklet. [Album. Introductory article by G. Sokolov.] Moscow, 1961.
Lorenz, T. Polyklet. Wiesbaden, 1972.