Doryphoros by Polykleitos
Sculptors of the Early and High Classical Grecian periods in art strived for perfection in creating the human form. They combined such features such as regular facial features, smooth skin, and particular body portions into an ideal of perfect beauty. Much as modern day advertisement has idealized the slender model as the new perfect female form. One such artist of the time was named Polykleitos of Argos. He was a well-known sculptor and art theorist. His aim in sculpting was to produce the perfect human figure using a mathematical equation to sculpt the body parts. It is believed that he used a basic unit ratio to measure the rest of the body parts. He set down his theory on the human body in a treatise known as “The Canon” and created a larger than life size sculpture he named Doryphoros and is now called “The Spear Bearer.” Unfortunately nobody knows exactly what that unit of measurement was because neither his treatise nor his statue survived the centuries.
