Doryphorus
As Doryphoros ( "spear carrier") is a statue type is referred to in several marble copies of Roman time is preserved and the original to a bronze statue of Polyklet v, a sculptor of the 5th century. BC, goes back.
The Doryphoros is at the center of any study of the polycletic canon . Polyklet wrote a textbook of the same name about it. A quote from the canon says that the beautiful, the good, the right consist of many numbers. The canon was thus a doctrine of proportions based on measures and proportions, or included them. Not only ancient artists referred to the polycletic canon . Philosophers and physicians have also invoked him when they wanted to say that a principle of their own science had general validity. The ancient sources suggest that the right measure (not too big, not too small, not too fat, not too thin) could not only be obtained by numbers and not only obtained in body shapes. A person's attitude, expressions of feeling and other things can also express a right measure.
In fact, the Doryphoros embodies the right measure in every sense, in the body shapes as in the posture, which is also a spiritual expression. Only through this, and not only through ideal body measurements, could it become the model work of Greek sculpture.
The canon also includes the choice of theme, nudity and age , which Doryphorus shows in the first years of manhood, not too young and not too old. Not one or the other half of life, but its center is the right measure here. Age and body dimensions are in a balancing middle position.
In the posture, however, the opposites are recorded, which balance each other out as a whole:
- Rest and exercise
- Tension and relaxation
- Up and down
The best known expression of this game of opposites is the counter post . Not only the standing and free leg , but all motifs of movement from head to toe are contrapostically opposite in Doryphoros. The Doryphorus is balanced on all sides, in perfect harmony based on the balance of opposites.
With Doryphoros, Polyklet raised Greek art into a new world. By then, sculpture had developed from archaic rigidity to free ponderation that corresponded to the natural way of standing and moving. Doryphoros also seems to be perfectly natural. At the same time, however, he embodied a law that had universal validity for the Greeks , the balance of forces or opposites, their opposing harmony. These also correspond to the principles of Greek philosophy and art, e.g. B. Aristotle 's definition of virtue.
With Doryphoros, Polyklet set a new task for Greek sculpture and raised it above everything it had previously achieved. The Doryphoros not only represents a lance-bearer (probably Achilles ), like other statues an athlete, hero or god, whose essence they are supposed to capture, be it with the help of attributes or through their mere form. With him a law is realized at the same time and completely, which for the Greeks had the rank not only of a general law of art, but of a world principle. In addition to the Doryphoros, the Diadumenos or Diskophoros type was groundbreaking for Greek sculpture. Later Greek sculptors such as Lysipp , Praxiteles or Skopas resorted to this.
In addition, the statue of Doryphorus was the model for Augustus of Primaporta (1st century BC). This becomes clearest when looking at the stand. Here, too, a very clear distinction is made between standing and free legs.
literature
- Herbert Beck , Peter C. Bol , Maraike Bückling (eds.): Polyklet. The sculptor of the Greek classical period. Exhibition in the Liebieghaus-Museum Alter Plastik Frankfurt am Main. Von Zabern, Mainz 1990, ISBN 3-8053-1175-3 .
- Detlev Kreikenbom : sculptures after Polyklet. Examinations critical of copies of the male statuary types based on polycletic models. "Diskophoros", Hermes, Doryphoros, Heracles, Diadumenos. Mann, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-7861-1623-7 .
