The Sculpture Doryphoros
#35 Arpy Nazerian
May 4, 2012
Artist: Polykleitos
Title: Doryphoros (spear-bearer)
Date: c. 450-440 BCE
Medium: Marble after a bronze original
Country: Rome
Artist: Herb Ritts
Title: Man With Chain
Date: 1985
Medium: Photograph
Museum: The J. Paul Getty Museum
Different works of art produced at different historical periods portray different subject matters. This is because different periods have presented varied forms and movements of art thereby determining the kind of works produced by the painters and sculptors of the time. The understanding of different forms of art and their historical periods is something necessary because it promotes our meaning and ability to interpret most of these works and relate them to their meanings. This essay will compare and contrast the sculptures Doryphoros by Polykleitos and Man With Chain by Herb Ritts. In this paper, I will also be offering my personal feelings about two works by the artists.
The sculpture Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer) is a Greek sculpture produced during the famous classical era, a movement practiced in Rome and Greek. Polykleitos decided to produce the work as a sign of rule, or canon. It presents a balanced and harmonious form of a man’s body. The work presents the idea of classicism. The artist achieved this by the depiction of solid-composed athlete with muscular features and a spear on the left shoulder. This presents a sign of power and dominance. This kind of arrangement was customary in the ancient Greek and Roman empires as a way of showing their forceful strength and power. In addition, the sculpture adopts other historical forms of art such as formalism and orientalism.
Looking at the sculpture by Polykleitos, the historical method of formalism is evident in the way it is has been presented. The Classical period in art managed to strike a form of perfection whereby the artists produced the human body to its best. The artists achieved this by combining certain features such as regular facial props, perfect posture, and ideals of beauty. The idea of formalism emerges in the gift to produce a body figure that appears flawless and presented in an absolute mathematical precision. The sculpture’s arrangement also followed the method of orientalism because it manages to offer the widest concepts of art through the depiction of beauty and perfect posture.
The other acknowledgeable piece of work using similar concepts and methods is the photograph Man With Chain by Herb Ritts. The work depicts Tony Ward who appears to