The most famous work of Polikleitos is "Dorifor" (Spear-bearer) (450-440 BC). It was believed that the figure was created on the basis of the provisions of Pythagoreanism, therefore, in ancient times, the statue of Doryphoros was often called the "canon of Poliklet", especially since his unpreserved treatise on aesthetics was called "Canon". Here, the rhythmic composition is based on the principle of cross uneven movement of the body (the right side, that is, the supporting leg and the arm lowered along the body, are static and tense, the left, that is, the leg left behind and the arm with the spear, are relaxed, but in motion). The forms of this statue are repeated in most of the works of the sculptor and his school.
The distance from the chin to the top of the head in the statues of Poliklet is one seventh of the height of the body, the distance from the eyes to the chin is one sixteenth, and the height of the face is one tenth.
In his "Canon" Polikleitos paid great attention to the Pythagorean theory of the golden division (the entire length is related to the larger part as much as the larger to the smaller). For example, the entire height of "Dorifor" refers to the distance from the floor to the navel, as this last distance - to the distance from the navel to the crown. At the same time, Policlet refused the golden division if it contradicted the natural parameters of the human body.
The treatise also embodies theoretical ideas about the crossed distribution of tension in the arms and legs. "Dorifor" is an early example of a classic contrapposto (otit. contrapposto- opposite), receiving an image in which the position of one part of the body is contrasted with the position of another part. Sometimes this statue was also called the "Canon of Polikleitos", it was even assumed that Poliklet made the statue so that others could use it as a model.
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Archaic period in Greek history(650-480 BC) - a term adopted among historians since the 18th century. Arose during the study Greek art and originally referred to the stage of development of Greek art, mainly decorative and plastic, intermediate between the period of geometric art and the art of classical Greece. Later, the term "archaic period" was extended not only to the history of art, but also to the social life of Greece, since during this period, which came after the "dark ages", there was a significant development of political theory, the rise of democracy, philosophy, theater, poetry, the revival of the written language (the appearance of the Greek alphabet instead of Linear B, forgotten during the "dark ages").
More recently, Anthony Snodgrass has criticized the term "archaic" because he sees it not as a "preparation" for the classical era, but as an independent episode of Greek history with its own developed culture. Michael Grant also criticized the term "archaic", since "archaic" implies a certain primitiveness, which in relation to archaic Greece is absolutely inapplicable - it was, in his opinion, one of the most fruitful periods in world history.
According to Snodgrass, the beginning of the archaic period should be considered a sharp increase in population and material well-being, which peaked in 750 BC. e., and the "intellectual revolution" of Greek culture. The end of the archaic period is considered to be the invasion of Xerxes in 480 BC. e. Nevertheless, individual cultural events associated with the archaic period could go both beyond the upper and lower conditional boundaries of the period. For example, red-figure vase painting, characteristic of the classical period of Greece, arose in the archaic period.
During the archaic period, the earliest forms of ancient Greek art - sculptures and vase paintings - developed, which become more realistic in the later classical period.
If Myron was fascinated by the problem of a truthful and convincing depiction of movement, then the sculptor Poliklet set other goals in his work. Creating statues of calmly standing athletes, the sculptor sought to find the ideal proportions on the basis of which the human body in sculpture could be built. In his search, Poliklet proceeded from a careful study of life. Contemplating the figures of naked athletes, the sculptor summarized his impressions and ultimately created artistic image, which has become a kind of norm and role model in the eyes of the citizens of the city-state.
The sculptor Polykleitos mathematically accurately calculated the dimensions of all parts of the body and their relationship to each other. He took the height of a person as a unit of measurement. In relation to height, the head was one seventh, the face and hand one tenth, the foot one sixth. The sculptor wrote a theoretical treatise called "Canon" (which means "rule"), where he outlined his thoughts on the most harmonious proportions of the human figure, as if established for it by nature itself. "Success artwork, - Poliklet argued, - is obtained from many numerical relations, and any trifle can violate it. Polikleitos embodied his ideal of an athlete-citizen in a bronze sculpture of a young man with a spear, cast around 450-440 BC. e. The mighty naked athlete - Doryphorus ("Spearman") - is depicted in a full and majestic pose. He holds a spear in his hand, which lies on his left shoulder, and the fledgling, turning its head, looks into the distance. It seems that the young man just bent forward and stopped. The beauty of a person becomes for her a measure of the value of a rationally arranged world.
Policlet affirms the idea of that every man must cultivate himself in order to serve his people. The civic pathos of Polpklet resonates with the characterization of the ideality of a citizen, which we find in the Greek writer Lucian: “Most of all, we try to make citizens beautiful in soul and strong in body: for it is precisely such people who live well together in peacetime and in time of war save the state and protect its freedom and happiness.” Leading Greek thinkers of the 5th century BC. e. such people were called "beautiful and valiant."
The impeccable perfection of the Doryphorus made it an unsurpassed model in the eyes of the Greeks. human beauty. Reproductions of this sculpture stood in many cities of Ancient Hellas, in those places where young men were engaged in gymnastic exercises. To this day, "Doriphorus", the greatest work of the sculptor Polykleitos, remains one of the most beautiful images of a person in world art.
In the mathematically verified canons of the ideal proportions of the body of Poliklet, Pythagoras and Leonardo da Vinci, each era makes adjustments in accordance with its own aesthetic tastes. This concerned men to a lesser extent, but women followed fashion with increased attention. To meet the standard, the representatives of the weaker sex either starved themselves and pulled tight corsets, or, on the contrary, flaunted curvaceous forms.
However, this was not a mass phenomenon and more concerned representatives of high society. So why in modern society the struggle for the ideal figure has acquired the character of an epidemic? Why has the level of dissatisfaction with one's body in society greatly increased in recent decades, while the adequacy of self-esteem has decreased?
Ideal Proportions female body according to popular beliefs in different eras
1. The proportions of ancient beauties, from the point of view modern people, it is difficult to call ideal. Ancient Venuses and Aphrodites are not tall (160-164 cm), quite well-fed, they have short legs and a wide waist. The Greek canons of beauty passed to the Romans
2. In the Middle Ages, when physical perfection was regarded as a terrible sin, the ideal of female beauty was considered to be flat, without pronounced sexual characteristics, figures
3. In the Baroque era, puffy beauties were valued. The women depicted on the canvases of Rubens, according to the artist, were "created from milk and blood"
4. In the 19th century, a corset and a thin waist came into fashion, which forced the beautiful half of humanity to go on a diet.
5. Since the 1960s, the 90-60-90 standard has been a universally recognized role model and standard of beauty. By the way, the parameters of "Miss Universe 2009" - Venezuelan fashion model Stefania Fernandez - 90-60-90, height 178
Psychologists consider the mass media to be the main culprits. Fashion shows, beauty contests form certain ideas about the ideal.
In the mid-1960s, fashion designer Mary Quant created a new fashion for the mini and babydoll style, which needed a model to match. She turned out to be Terry Twiggy, whose miniature size (79-56-81 with a height of 165 centimeters and a weight of 40 kilograms) became the ideal of beauty for millions of girls in the Old and New Worlds.
“I was very skinny, but I had such a body by nature,” Twiggy said about herself, “thinness is in my genes.” Well, those to whom nature did not make such a gift had to torture themselves in every possible way.
The fashion for thin beauties was fixed in the mid-1990s by Kate Moss, the star of the style with a telling name - “heroin chic”. In an effort to resemble their idols, people who are malleable to fashion make any sacrifice. Meanwhile, the only parameter that can be manipulated is weight, and there is a constant struggle with it. And the recognized beauties, whom everyone strives to be like, do not stop there, they also got the weight loss virus.
A quarter of a century ago, the average model weighed 8% less than the average American woman. Now this gap has grown to 23%. The height of the average American model is 180.3 centimeters, and the weight is 53 kilograms.
The body mass index, which is calculated by dividing weight by height squared, is 16.3. Such an indicator, in the strict language of physicians, meaning "pronounced lack of mass", indicates exhaustion and serious violations of work. internal organs.
Canon of Polykleitos
People have been trying to derive the mathematical formula of beauty since Antiquity. The Argive sculptor Polikleitos even compiled a special treatise "Canon" on proportions. human body. The treatise itself has not come down to us, but we can judge the canon of Polykleitos on the basis of his most famous sculpture - "Dorifor" (about 450 BC).
"Dorifor" - the famous statue of Antiquity by the sculptor Polikleitos
Measurements of the surviving marble replicas of the statue show that the head is one seventh of the height of the "spearman", the face and hand are one tenth, the foot is one sixth, and the distance from the eyes to the chin is one twelfth.
Poliklet, apparently, used the principle of the golden section discovered by the Pythagoreans, according to which the segment is divided into two parts in such a way that the smaller part is related to the larger one, as the larger one is to the whole value.
The growth of "Dorifor" is related to the distance from the base of the foot to the navel, as this last distance is to the distance from the navel to the crown; the distance from the navel to the crown of the head is related to the distance from the navel to the neck as the latter is to the distance from the neck to the crown, and the knees of the statue are at the point of the golden ratio of the distance from the navel to the heels.
All claims to genetics
The parameters of the human body are determined not only by weight. In many ways, they depend on the physique of a person - the constitution, which is genetically laid down and can only change in connection with age-related processes or under the influence of diseases.
Professor Ivan Galant in 1927 divided female figures into seven constitutional types, none of which is pathological. In life, these seven types are equally common, but the overwhelming majority of models are recruited from only two types - asthenic and subathletic, which are characterized by longer limbs and the predominance of longitudinal dimensions over transverse ones.
Even if a representative of another type loses weight to the “ideal” weight, this will not be able to change her innate proportions and the ratio of muscle and bone mass. No diet will make a thin-boned asthenic out of a stocky woman of a picnic type.
But even among people who are fully aware of this, as studies by American scientists have shown, the assessment of their body falls immediately after watching a commercial or film with the participation of thin actors, and in fact many people see them at least a dozen a day, and, naturally, the level of impact of these images on the psyche of people is growing.
As a result, the number of people who are dissatisfied with their body, belonging to different social and age groups, different nationalities, is increasing. After all, as you know, a drop wears away a stone.
It used to be that anxiety about their weight is mainly characteristic of teenage girls who, as a result of physiological changes in the body, quickly gain weight, and after that their body seems to them wrong and far from ideal, although in fact their figure simply turns from childish to feminine.
However, now researchers have found that dissatisfaction with their figure and weight begins at a very early age. Testing conducted by American doctors showed that more than 80% of ten-year-old girls tried to diet. And by the age of 12, two-thirds of those who were underweight described themselves as too fat.
Swedish researchers found that 25% of seven-year-old girls surveyed are trying to lose weight and already at this age suffer from a distorted perception of their own body. They are unable to properly evaluate their image in the mirror. It seems to them ugly and fat. And when they were asked to draw the contours of their own bodies on a sheet of paper, they depicted themselves as much fatter than they were in reality.
They are trying to solve this problem in the simplest and, as it seems to them, the most effective way- refusal to eat, which leads to anorexia nervosa. Patients bring themselves to severe exhaustion. At the same time, girls who undertook to lose weight in order to become “sexy” become completely indifferent to male gender.
After 1.5-2 years of thoughtless malnutrition, when the weight loss reaches 50 percent or more of the initial weight, irreversible inhibition of the functions of all systems and organs occurs, often with a fatal outcome.
For a long time, it was thought that men were less anxious about not conforming to the aesthetic ideals of the mass media. This was due to the fact that men were required to be healthy and strong rather than flexible and slender. So, the male models who have been shot for the Playgirl magazine spread over the past 25 years have lost an average of 5.4 kilograms of fat, but, with the help of anabolic steroids, have added 12.2 kilograms of muscle.
However, the situation is changing. Today, men spend as much as women on plastic surgery and massage parlors. And in 2009, the Russian Stas Svetlichny was recognized as the new standard of male beauty, who conquered the catwalks of New York, who, with a height of 180 centimeters and a weight of 65 kilograms, has a waist of 71 and a chest volume of 90 centimeters. The normal body mass index for men should be 23-25, the BMI of the standard is clearly lower - only 20.
Renaissance ideal
During the Renaissance in Europe, attempts were also made to calculate ideal proportions. The famous "Vitruvian Man" by Leonardo da Vinci is based on the canonical proportions of the Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius (1st century BC).
The man in the figure is depicted in two poses, one of which is inscribed in a circle and the other in a square. In this case, the center of the circle is the navel, and the square is the genitals.
Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, made around 1490
In writing, the canon of Vitruvius is as follows: The hand is four fingers; the foot is four brushes; a cubit is six hands; the height of a man is four cubits (24 brushes); a step is four cubits; the span of human hands is equal to his height; the distance from the hairline to the chin is 1/10 of its height; the distance from the crown to the chin is 1/8 of its height; the distance from the crown to the nipples is 1/4 of his height; the maximum width of the shoulders is 1/4 of its height; the distance from the elbow to the armpit is 1/8 of his height; arm length is 2/5 of his height; the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows is 1/3 of the length of his face; the length of the ears is 1/3 of the length of the face.
Thick and thin
There must be many beautiful people. Many nations thought so, and parents fed their daughters from a very young age, then passed the baton to their husbands. For them, thinness was associated with disease and poverty, and being overweight was associated with health and wealth.
However, in Lately thanks to globalization, these national standards of beauty have begun to be replaced by universal ones. A good example of this is Fiji. Australian psychologists have been watching schoolchildren on one of the islands of the republic since the mid-1990s, when television was finally installed there.
In just a few years, local girls growing up in families in which the phrase "you've gained weight" has traditionally served as a pleasant compliment to a woman like "you look young", having started watching American series like "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Melrose Place", began to compare themselves with their heroines and now dream of losing weight, despite the objections of parents who adhere to traditional views on feminine beauty.
Surveys of young girls from the Fiji Islands, conducted by scientists at Harvard Medical School, helped explain why this influence was so strong. It's not just that the actresses are presented on the screen as models of beauty. They, or rather their characters, succeed in life, make a career and have many benefits that are not available to girls on the island of Nadroga.
Trying to change your body is the hope of getting closer to a happy, successful life by copying the appearance of the heroines of the series. The Western model of the ideal female body is becoming popular in other countries as well. In Japan, 41% of elementary school girls consider themselves too fat. What can we say about the United Arab Emirates, where the percentage of girls school age, wishing to lose weight (66%), exceeds the US figure (60%).
It is curious that Hispanic and African American women living in America are less exposed to the mass media and do not give of great importance figure. It's easy to explain - the models and actresses who set the trend in external attractiveness are mostly Caucasian women, so women of other origins do not project their appearance onto themselves and do not consider these standards to be “their own”.
Proportions for contemporaries
And today, researchers continue to look for a formula that determines the attractiveness of a person. Of the most famous and simple criteria, one can name the waist-to-hip ratio, as well as the ratio of leg length to body length. The first, ideally, is 0.7 for women and 0.9 for men.
Interestingly, some doctors consider these ratios to be optimal for human health as well. However, the ratio of 0.7, the same as that of the Venus de Milo, Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe, turns out to be the most attractive for men brought up in European culture.
For the Chinese, this figure is closer to 0.6, and for the inhabitants of Africa and South America - to 0.8-0.9. As for the length of the legs, everything is simple here: longer legs are considered more attractive in women, shorter legs and a long torso in men.
These proportions show, albeit very approximately, the hormonal status (somattype) of a person, which is due to the dominant of one of the endocrine glands. More attractive is a person with a higher level of hormones corresponding to his gender.
Beauty on the stream
After two South American fashion models died of exhaustion in 2006, and exactly a year later another one, Eliana Ramos from Uruguay, the world community began a campaign against anorexia, calling for the models to abandon the diet of lettuce and calorie-free drinks.
And although 8 out of 10 women want to get rid of excess weight, according to the results of various surveys of psychologists, few are able to completely refuse food. Currently, only 1-2% of people suffer from anorexia. The rest are trying all sorts of weight loss methods.
Beauty and harmony have long been a commodity, and an expensive one, which is produced by many industries - cosmetic, surgical, pharmaceutical. It is significant that the emphasis in the image perfect woman is also done to preserve youth. Some weight gain and loss of youthful slenderness in adulthood are not presented as the norm, but as an annoying problem that can be solved with the help of special cosmetics, procedures, or individually designed diets and exercise systems.
All this cannot but have a strong influence not only on the psyche of women, but also on their life partners. There was even a special term for this phenomenon - the "objectification" of women. It was introduced by psychologist Barbara Fredrickson and means the perception of a woman and the female body as an object that is constantly evaluated by others, and these assessments are extremely important for social status, and therefore the body must always be presented to society in at its best.
This stereotype is so firmly planted in the minds of people that many people consider some completeness or other deviations of appearance from the accepted standard unacceptable, and the owners of these shortcomings are considered white crows and second-class people. Thus, feeling the pressure of society, women go to extreme measures, trying to comply with social norms.
A low and inadequate assessment of one's body, unwillingness to accept its innate features is fraught with loss of health. Diets and exhausting sports teach a person not to respond to signals of discomfort, which can be dangerous in case of overwork or illness. In addition, realizing the futility of such efforts, people rush to the other extreme, starting to eat uncontrollably, as if compensating for their previous suffering.
According to statistics from the UK Department of Health, the prevalence of anorexia among adolescents has changed little over the past decade, while the number of obese adolescents has increased markedly, and more than a quarter of them are not aware of their condition.
But the main problem all the same, it consists in learning to treat our own body in a new way and, assessing the fashion trends that are imposed on us from the outside, to understand what we can change in ourselves and what is not in our power. Nature does not make concessions in this respect.
seven graces
Professor Ivan Borisovich Galant in the article "A New Scheme of Constitutional Types of Women", published in the Kazan Medical Journal in 1927, identified seven types of women's constitutions.
1. Asthenic type is characterized by strong thinness, narrow and hollow chest. In women of this type, muscles and adipose tissue are very poorly developed. Among the asthenics there are both short and tall women. This type includes, for example, Cindy Crawford.
2. The stenoplastic type differs from the asthenic type in a more developed musculature and a more pronounced fat layer. Growth is usually average or below average. The Venus de Milo is most often cited as an example of this type.
3. The mesoplastic type is characterized by stockiness, broad shoulders and pelvis. They have an average height, a well-developed skeleton and muscular component, and a moderately developed fat deposition. Characteristic representatives of this type will be Soviet sculptures of "girls with an oar".
4. The picnic type is characterized by increased fat deposition, medium or small growth, full body, wide rounded shoulders, wide pelvis.
5. The subathletic type is similar to the stenoplastic type, but is characterized by high growth and better muscle development.
6. The athletic type is distinguished by highly developed muscles and skeleton, while their fat deposition is poorly developed. The proportions of the body resemble men's - broad shoulders, narrow pelvis. This type is often found in professional athletes.
7. Euriplastic type - large women, combining the signs of an athletic type with increased fat deposition.
Kira Romashko
East softmixer.com
Original entry and comments on
1. The numerical structure of a work of art
We now have to analyze the attitude of ancient Pythagoreanism specifically to a work of art, although, as we saw above, the main and most important work of art for the Pythagoreans was the sensual cosmos with its harmony of spheres and with a proportional distribution in it of physical-geometric and musical-arithmetic ratios. Ancient Pythagorean materials contain some data about a work of art in the usual sense of the word. Namely, the famous sculptor of the 5th century. BC. Polykleitos, as we shall see below, is quite definitely associated with the Pythagorean mathematical proportion, being the author of a treatise on numerical proportions in sculpture, as well as the author of a sculptural work under the name "Canon", which was proposed as a model for any sculptural work ("Canon" in Greek means "rule").
The very fact of the appearance of a treatise and a statue called "Canon", belonging to a Pythagorean author, is very characteristic. Here the corporeality of the Pythagorean number, and its structural correctness, and its regulative character for any construction (especially artistic), and its aesthetic character, which does not contradict artistic production, but, on the contrary, coincides with it, affected. Materials about Polykleitos, like all Pythagorean materials, are very scattered. It is very difficult to combine them into one whole and to formulate the aesthetic theory hidden here. Nevertheless, the canon of Polykleitos was subjected to various examinations and interpretations dozens of times.
2. Starting point
The starting point of our understanding of the canon of Polykleitos is the text of the mechanic Philo (Phil. mechan. IV 1, ed. R. Schöne, Berl. 1893, p. 49, 20 Makov.). “So many, having taken up the manufacture of tools of the same size and using the same design, the same wood and the same amount of iron, without changing the weight itself, made some tools long-range and strong in their impact, while others were more lagging behind those named. And when they are asked about the reason for this, they cannot name such a reason. ) [a work of art] is obtained from many numerical relations, and any trifle can violate it. "Evidently, in this art [mechanics], when creating a structure with the help of a multitude of numbers, one has to make big errors as a result, if even a small error is allowed in particular cases" 46.
These texts are extremely important to us. First of all, we are again convinced that 1) the basis of art here is the form ("eidos"), that 2) this form as such is opposed to matter (because the same matter under the influence of different forms creates different works), that 3) this form is nevertheless material, technical, mechanical, outwardly shaping and that, consequently, there is no experience and psychology, but only the image of things, that 4) this form is very clear, noticeable in every nail, does not lose believing even the slightest falsehood that, finally, 5) this externally material form, not being psychologically experiential, is nevertheless alive and vital in its action.
This is what the canon of Polykleitos is in its primary, most general form.
3. Symmetry of a living body
More specifically, the following text of Galen (Gal. Plac. Hipp. et Plat. V 9. p. 425. 14 Müll.) introduces us to the understanding of the theory of Polycletus (Gal. Plac. Hipp. et Plat. V 9. p. 425. 14 Müll.) "[Chrysippus] clearly showed this with the help of the reasoning given somewhat above, in which he calls the health of the body the symmetry of warm, cold, dry and wet [what is known to be the primary elements of bodies]. Beauty, in his opinion, does not lie in symmetry [physically x] elements, but in symmetry parts, those. in the symmetry of a finger with a finger, all fingers with a metacarpus and a hand, and these latter with an elbow and an elbow with a hand, and all [in general] parts with all. How is it written "in the Canon" of Polykleitos? Namely, having taught us all the symmetry of the body in this work, Poliklet confirmed his word with deed - by constructing a statue in accordance with the instructions of his teaching. And, as is known, he called "Canon" both this statue of his and this work. Obviously, according to all doctors and philosophers, the beauty of the body lies in the symmetry of the parts.
This text is important in many ways. First of all, the context speaks of the theory of health as the proportionality of the primary physical elements. This is quite a classic way of thinking. Secondly, beauty is conceived here not as a symmetry of primary physical elements, but as a symmetry parts, those. as the symmetry of the elements in our sense of "element", not in the sense of primary substance, but in the sense of a partial manifestation of the whole. This means that 1) the phenomenon of beauty is based in Polykleitos not simply on sensibility, but on its well-known shaping, that 2) this shaping is thought here again mathematically, and that, finally, 3) this mathematicity still remains here a problem of precisely external and material shaping. All these features are beautifully portrayed by Galen's reports.
Pliny’s message (Plin. nat. hist. XXXIV 55 Varn.) should be drawn to this: “Polykleitos also made a spear-bearer, a mature young man. Artists call her [statue] a canon and receive from her, as if from some law, the foundations of their art and Polyklet is considered the only person who made his theory from a work of art. From this text we must draw the important conclusion that the notion of the classical ideal already includes some reflection on art as such. However, in accordance with the principles of ancient classics in general, art in this case does not at all become “pure”, “disinterested”, isolated from the sphere of other being. It, being art, is considered, nevertheless, as a kind of living and material being, but only this being is specifically designed. And this materiality of art in Polykleitos reaches the point of creating statues"Canon". There is nothing less than a mature classical ideal. The form of art is not here something ideal, immaterial, incorporeal. On the contrary, it is a body, a definite body. The statue of Polykleitos "Canon" was such a form of art, ideal and real at the same time.
4. The concept of the center
How exactly did Poliklet imagine the proportionality of the human body? We read about this, first of all, in the same Galen (Gal. De temper. 19 Helmr.). "So that's what this method is. To get the skill to recognize center(to meson) in every kind of living beings and in everything that exists is not the work of just anyone, but of such a person who is extremely industrious and who can find this center with the help of long experience and repeated knowledge of all particulars. In this way, for example, sculptors, painters and sculptors, and in general statue makers, paint and sculpt in each kind what is most beautiful, such as: a beautiful-looking person or a horse, or a cow, or a lion, in [each] such kind. At the same time, some kind of statue of Polykleitos called "Canon" receives commendable reviews, reaching this name because it contains the exact mutual symmetry of all its parts.
So, the proportionality of the human body is oriented in Polikleitos to a certain center, those. presupposes this body as a whole. About the concept of the center in ancient aesthetics and philosophy in general, we have already had the opportunity to speak above. If we compare this Polykletian attitude, for example, with the Egyptian manner of symmetry, then we will certainly notice that Polykleitos is guided by a living human body, while in Egypt they were mainly interested in completely a priori schemes. The last of the cited texts of Galen, speaking of the statue as in general, about the symmetry of its constituent elements (cf. also the previous text of Galen), reveals the essential side of the Greek doctrine of proportions, in contrast to the Egyptian. The Greeks did not proceed from some unit of measurement, so that later, by multiplying this unit by one or another integer, they would obtain the desired dimensions of individual parts of the body. Greeks proceeded from these parts themselves, no matter from which general measures taken as a unit, these parts are obtained. Polykleitos took the height of a person as a whole, as a unit; then a separate part of the body was fixed as such, whatever its size, and only after that the relation of each such part to the whole was fixed. It is clear that integer numbers could not be obtained here. Each part in relation to the whole was expressed as a fraction, in which the numerator was always a unit, and the denominator varied in connection with the actual size of this part. The relationship between the individual parts was expressed by even more complex fractions and even irrational numbers. The well-known measurement of the polycletean Doryphoros, undertaken by Kalkman 47 , also came to these results. Proportionality developed here not from some a priori unit of measurement - which has nothing to do with either individual parts of the body, or with the body itself, taken as a whole - to the treatment of the whole body as such. On the contrary, proportionality was built here without any abstract measure, from one real part of the body to another and to the body itself as a whole. Here she performed cleanly anthropometric point of view instead of the Egyptian conditional apriorism. Here, first of all, the real organic relationships that reign in the human body, including the entire scope of its elastic movements and its orientation in the environment, were taken into account. When fixing the whole, it was no longer possible to ignore the "point of view" of the observer. It was important whether the statue was directly in front of the observer or if it was placed very high. So, for example, it has already been pointed out more than once that Athena Phidias objectively does not have the proportions that appear to those who look at her from below. The image of the Chimera, which includes parts of different living beings, has an integral structure of proportions, and not several types of proportions, like the Egyptian Sphinx.
The visual orientation of the Greek statue is even more clearly expressed in one anecdote by Diodorus Siculus (historian of the 1st century BC), not connected, however, directly with Polykleitos, but still very characteristic and expressive of Greek proportions in general. Diodorus (Diod. 198) writes: “Of the ancient sculptors, Teleclus and Theodorus, the sons of Rek, who built for the Samians a statue of the Pythian Apollo. as if the whole work was done by one [master]. However, this kind of work is never used among the Greeks, but is mostly used among the Egyptians. In fact, the symmetry of the statues is not judged by them with point of view of the representation obtained in accordance With [real] vision(oyc apo tes cata ten horasin phan tasias), as it happens with the Greeks, but whenever they lay stones and work them by crushing, at that very time they use the same analogy from the smallest [size] to the largest, since they create the symmetry of a living being by dividing the entire size of his body into 21 1 / 4 parts. Therefore, when artists agree [here] with each other regarding sizes, then, despite their separation from each other, they create in their works such exactly coinciding sizes that the originality of their skill can cause astonishment. The said Samian statue, if, according to the Egyptian methods of art, it is divided in two along the crown, defines the middle of the body up to the penis, and thus turns out to be equal to itself on all sides. They say that she is most similar to Egyptian statues, since her arms are, as it were, outstretched, and her legs are spread wide" 48.
This story, better than any theoretical evidence, reveals all the originality of the Greek sense of bodily proportions and the Greek artistic and technical dimensions and canons that grow from it. The most important thing is that the Greeks judge "from the point of view of the representation obtained in accordance with the (real) vision". This is something that is not found either in the strict canons of Egypt or in medieval practice, and which was revived only in modern times by Leonardo da Vinci and Dürer.
5. "Square" style
We find a further step towards the concretization of the Polykletian canon in the words of Pliny (Plin. nat. hist., XXXIV 56): "A distinctive feature of Polykleitos is that he thought of giving the figures such a statement that they rested on the lower part of only one leg. However, Varro reports that his works were" square "(quadrata) and almost all of them were of the same pattern." What does this "squareness" or, perhaps, "squareness" about which Pliny speaks with reference to Varro mean? As Cels shows. II, I, this is neque gracile, neque obesus, i.e. "not thin [thin] and not fat." We read about Vespasian in Suetonius (Vesp. 20): "Vespasian was" with dense strong members "(compactis formisque membris). Quintilian also uses this epithet to characterize the speech warehouse, speaking, for example, about the" light and complete (quadrata) warehouse of words "(II 5, 9) and about the emergence from the diverse particles of speech" severe, magnificent, restrained (quadratum) and relaxed "(I X, 4, 69). In Petronius (43.7) we read: “It is easy for him for whom everything goes smoothly (quadrata).” In addition, quadratus is in Pliny, apparently, a translation of the Greek tetragonos, and this last one comes across in a more literal sense in Philostr. Heroic, p. a warrior" with the meaning "brave" in Aristotle. "Always or for the most part will act and think according to virtue and will best endure accidents and will always be completely harmonious who is truly good and stable (tetragonos) without reproach" (Arist. Ethic. N I 11, 1100 b19). "It is a metaphor to call a good (agathos) man quadrangular (Arist. Rhet. III 11,1411b27). The expression "square mind" is read in Plato: "Indeed, it is difficult to become a man, good, perfect in all respects [literally: "square in hand, foot and mind"]" (Plat. Plot. 339 b).
Let us read a very important text by Pliny (Plin. nat. hist. XXXIV 65), showing us all the difference between the “squareness” of Polykleitos and the “thinness” of Lysippus: human he did less, than more ancient artists, and the body itself thinner And drier which gave the impression that the statues were taller. Symmetry, which Lysippus observed with the utmost care, has no corresponding Latin name. At the same time, Lysippus applied a new and hitherto unused manner of constructing figures, instead of square, how the old masters did it; and he claimed that they made pictures of people as they really are, and he himself the way they seem. Distinctive properties of Lysippus are also those cunningly invented subtleties that he observed even in the smallest details of his works.
Indeed, something "square" is felt in the polycletic Doryphoros even physically. The broad shoulders, proportionately a quarter of the total height here, and the rectangular processing of the musculature of the torso and chest give the impression of "square", despite the lively rhythm given to the whole body by raising the left shoulder and lowering the right, as well as the arching of the hips and throwing back the left leg. However, "squareness" must be understood here much more broadly, as in general the classical style, which has not yet passed to the refinements of Lysippus.
This is also evidenced by Auct. ad Herenn. IV 6, who, considering the exemplary parts of the body of Myron's head, and Praxiteles' hands, considers that of Polykleitos breast. Let us add to this the words of Quintilian (Quint. - XIII 10, 8). "More rude and closest to the Tuscan statues were made by Kallon and Hegesius, already less rigid - Calamis, Myron [still] softer than those just named. Thoroughness and beauty are more than others in Polikleitos, who [although he is awarded the palm by the majority], however, lacks, it is believed, importance, so as not to belittle him in anything. Indeed, how much he added beauty to the truth human form so, it is believed, he did not bear the importance of the gods. It is said that he even avoided older age, not daring to go anywhere beyond the naive cheeks [of young people]. But what Polykleitos lacked was given by Phidias and Alkamenes ... ". This report by Quintilian somewhat corrects the data of Pliny and others about the weightiness of the proportions of Polykleitos. While not distinguished by tenderness, they were still not majestic and superhuman. They were characterized by human, and we would add, precisely classical Greek beauty. If we want to remain strictly within the framework of classical Greece, sharply separating it from both archaism and Hellenism , then we must take a sculpture that is not at all psychological, but nonetheless human.In this sculpture, not experiences should be expressed, but the physical position of the physical body - throwing the disc, carrying a spear, tying the head, etc. And this will be, mainly, Polykleitos and his era.
In terms of general characteristics of the canon of Polikleitos, perhaps the most expressive are the following words of Lucian (Luc. De salt. 75 Ram.): “As for the body, it seems to me that the dancer must comply with the strict rules of Poliklet: not be either too tall and immoderately long, or short, like a dwarf, but immaculately proportionate; neither fat, otherwise the game will be unconvincing, nor excessively thin, so as not to resemble a skeleton and not produce a dead impressions." According to the ancients, however, this did not make the work of Polycleitus something impersonal. On the contrary, according to Cicero, "Myron, Poliklet and Lysippus in the art of fiction are not at all similar to each other. But they are so unlike that one would not want them to be similar, that is, they would not be themselves" (Cic. de or. VIII 7, 26) 49.
6. Question about numerical data
Finally, we must also raise the question of what specifically numbers will express the canon of Polikleitos. This is where we are the least informed. The only source on this issue from all ancient literature is Vitruvius (III 1, 2 Petrovsk.), who, however, citing his numerical data, does not name Poliklet: "After all, nature has folded the human body in such a way that the face from the chin to the upper line of the forehead and the beginning of the hair roots is a tenth of the body, as well as an outstretched hand from the wrist to the end of the middle finger; the head from the chin to the crown is the eighth, and together with the neck, starting from its base from the top of the chest to the beginning of the roots of the hair - the sixth, and from the middle of the chest from the crown - the fourth. As for the length of the face itself, the distance from the bottom of the chin to the bottom of the claws is one third, the nose from the bottom of the nostrils to the section of the eyebrows is the same, and the forehead from this section to the beginning of the roots is also a third. The foot is a sixth of the length of the body, the elbow of the arm is a quarter, and the chest is also a quarter, and the rest of the parts also have their own proportionality, which was also taken into account by the famous ancient painters and sculptors, and by this they achieved great and infinite glory.
Since the canon of Polykleitos is not the only one and there is more information, for example, about the canon of Lysippus, we have the right to ask the question: what exactly did Vitruvius mean?
There is one way to check both Vitruvius and Poliklet himself, this is - actually measure those marble copies that have come down to us under the name of Polikleitos and made from his bronze statues. This was done by Kalkman, who arrived at a very important result. It turns out that the distance from the chin to the crown in the statues of Polikleitos is not one eighth of the length of the entire body, as in Vitruvius, but one seventh, while the distance from the eyes to the chin is one sixteenth, while the height of the face is one tenth of the entire figure. It is clear, therefore, that Vitruvius does not proceed from the Polyclete canon, but from a later one., - perhaps from the canon of Lysippus. However, even without any special measurements, it is clear to everyone that Lysippus's head is smaller, "more intelligent" than that of Polikleitos, and this is understandable, since Poliklet is a representative of a more strictly classical ideal than Lysippus.
There is, however, another possibility of approaching the numerical representation of the canon of Polykleitos. The fact is that Polykleitos is firmly connected with the Pythagorean tradition. From the Pythagoreans, however, comes the theory of the so-called golden division (the entire length is related to the larger part as much as the larger to the smaller). If we consider Polikletov Doryphoros as the spokesman of his canon, then it is established that his entire height refers to the distance from the floor to the navel, just as this last distance refers to the distance from the navel to the crown. It has been established that if we take the distance from the navel to the top of the head, then it relates to the distance from the navel to the neck in the same way as the latter relates to the distance from the neck to the top of the head, and if we take the distance from the navel to the heels, then golden division falls here on his knees 50 . Vitruvius (III 1, 3) argues that if you draw a circle from the human navel as the center, when a person is stretched out on the ground with legs and arms spread as much as possible, then the circle will pass just through the extreme points of all limbs. At the same time, he does not say that a pentagram is formed here; but it is actually formed. And the pentagram, as it is said in many works on art, is built precisely according to the law of golden division. This very important circumstance is capable of suggesting great reflections, and although there are no exact data for such an understanding of the numerical nature of the canon of Polykleitos, its probability is nevertheless enormous and its aesthetic significance is almost obvious.
7. Cultural and stylistic assessment of the "Canon" by Polykleitos
The previous texts provide exhaustive philological material on the canon of Polykleitos. However, we have already given overall score this canon. Let us now formulate in a generalized form what could be said about the cultural and stylistic nature of this phenomenon as a whole.
A) First of all in the era of the classical ideal, it was impossible to understand the canon purely arithmetically and computationally. - A pure arithmetic-computational technique characterizes the epochs of a much smaller approach to art, the epochs of external technical attitude towards it on the basis of the powerless rationalistic impotent disposition of the subject, devoid of big ideas.
Classical Hellenism is much more energetic and powerful, much more ontological. Numerical form for him is also an existential form, the number here is material or, at least, existential. That is why the numbers of this canon cannot be countable in our sense of the word. These numbers are here substances, living forces, material-semantic energies. Such is the whole nature of the classical ideal. It is interesting that a slight touch of this philosophical ontologism and dynamism lies even on the essentially positivist numerical reasoning and operations of the theorists of the Renaissance.
Classics where there is some abstractness, chaste abstinence from debauchery, psychologism and naturalism, something general or general, running confusion and endless chaos, particulars and accidents, i.e. purely numerical, mathematical, geometric, structural-eidetic. But at the same time, the classic is where this abstract universality is not only logic and a system of purely rational schemes, but where it itself is a certain thing, a substance, a certain living force and creative power. Let's take a closer look at the "classical art", no matter what culture, whether the ancient V century, or the new European Renaissance. Why are classical forms so solid, weighty, strong and solid? Why is their beauty, harmony, coldish majesty, or, as we put it, abstract universality, so existential, stable, fundamental? Precisely because under these numerical symmetries lies the feeling ontologism of number, a sense of the materiality of any semantic, and hence, numerical structure. That is why Poliklet creates the very statue of the "Canon", the most, so to speak, material substance of the numerical canon. That is why also, if not directly Poliklet himself, then, in any case, contemporary Pythagoreans give an ontological-energetic justification for all the numerical operations of the then artistic canons.
b) It's easy to see the resemblance in the understanding of the very nature of numerical symmetry by Polykleitos and the Pythagoreans. The texts cited above according to Policlet testify that the proportions are thought of by him not mechanically, but organically: they proceed from the natural symmetry of the living human body and fix in it what is most normal. The Pythagoreans do not act differently with their numbers, who also come from some corporeal cosmos, as it seemed to them in the form of celestial spheres, and fix those of its numerical ratios, which then seemed normal for him. Of course, these correlations, in accordance with the epoch, are abstract-universal and therefore largely a priori. Nevertheless, for all the apriorism of their content, they were thought to be quite real. If numerical symmetry did not prevent Myron from expressing the tension of the body at the moment of throwing the disk in "Discobolus", and Polycletus in his "Doryphoros" - chiasm of the legs and shoulders, i.e., in addition to symmetry, also observe "eurythmy", then the Pythagorean cosmos contains not only a certain living schematic, but also the real rhythm of the arrangement of heavenly bodies (as it was then presented).
V) In connection with the ontology of numbers, it is necessary to pay due tribute and the very concept of canon. This notion characteristic of the classical ideal in art. After all, this art lives in the abstract-universal, i.e., first of all, in numerical forms, understanding these numbers not arithmetically-computational, but real-ontologically. But this also means that numerical schemes have an immutable significance here and are precisely the canon. Thus, we see that the very concept of the canon contains something material-semantic, or, more precisely, material-numerical, i.e. Pythagorean. With this in mind, the numerical data of the Polyclete canon should be strictly separated oh later proportions, those. first of all from the Hellenistic, for example, from the Lysippus (since Lysippus must be considered the artist of ascending Hellenism).
In Hellenism, a concept appears that is completely alien to the classics - the concept of "nature" 51 . What is the meaning of this new, in comparison with the classics, concept, was well shown by the painter Eupomp, the founder of the Sicyon school. When asked which of his predecessors he followed, he pointed to a crowd of people and stated that one should imitate nature, not the artist (Plin. XXXIV19). A turn towards naturalism was already outlined by Praxiteles. He depicted a "jubilant hetera", regarding which they think that "she represented Phryne", the mistress of Praxiteles himself (ibid. 70). And here is a story about the emphasized "realism" of the painter of the 4th century. Zeuxis: "... In general, he showed such thoroughness that, intending to draw for the inhabitants of Agrigentum a picture that they built at the public expense for the temple of Juno Lacinia, he examined in the nude of their maidens and chose five of them in order to reproduce in the picture what each of them individually was approved by him"(Ibid., 64) 52 .
Here we have a fundamentally new, non-classical setting of artistic consciousness. And although the artists of ascending Hellenism cannot do without some apriorism (for Zeuxis made a selection of "natural" facts on the basis of some by no means empirical principles), nevertheless, empirically observed sizes and proportions are the canon here, and not a priori numerical speculations (even if they are close to "reality"). As a result of all this, there is no need for the canon itself.
Polikleitos, for all his vitality and humanity, is much more a priori than Lysippus and Hellenism. But if we take into account that under Zeuxis-type empiricism there is a subject more independent in his sensations, which corresponds to Hellenistic psychologism, then we will not be surprised by the fact that it was precisely in the Renaissance that this method gained particular popularity, and the artists of the new great subjectivist era often recall precisely the method of Zeuxis (and not Polykleitos) and associate their doctrine of proportions precisely with it.
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460 BC
410 BC
Ancient Greece
An ancient Greek sculptor who outlined his arguments on the theory of art in the treatise "Canon" (2 fragments have come down to us). He was born on the island of Argos, but the exact dates of his life are not known.
bronze sculptures Polykleitos(they are lost, but known to us from ancient Roman copies) proportionality is inherent, taken by followers later as a model. So, according to Poliklet, the length of the foot should be 1/6 of the height of a person, the height of the head - 1/7, the hand - 1/10.
Many of his sculptures are figures of gods and winners of the Olympic Games.
Polykleitos was the first to invent a technique for conveying the movement of the human body in sculpture, while maintaining the balance of the figure as a whole, which was called "chiasma" - from the Greek letter "X".
On his native island, he studied with the sculptor Agelad of Argos, who, according to legend, taught and Phidias. Probably Polykleitos was influenced by the ideas Pythagoras about proportion.
Polikleitos had numerous students and followers, including the Romans.
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