Polyclitus among the Philosophers: Canons of Classical Beauty

Abstract

At some time in the second half of the fifth century BC, the sculptor Polyclitus published a book called the Canon, in which he set out a pattern for human beauty.¹ To illustrate the principles on which it was based, he cast the Doryphoros, a bronze statue of a nude carrying a spear which, owing to its association with the book, came to be known as the ‘Canon’ as well.² Sadly, Polyclitus’ book survives only in a few second-hand references, and the statue only in later copies, and this makes it impossible to gain a very precise idea either of Polyclitus’ methods or his conclusions. What we do know, however, is that he specified that each part of the body should be of ‘mean’ (i.e. moderate) size, and relate to every other part according to some principle of symmetria (i.e. due proportion): ‘finger to finger, and all to the wrist, and these to the forearm, the forearm to the arm, and everything to everything else’.³ As far as this evidence goes, Polyclitus appears to have thought that the aesthetics of the human form was no less, but no more, than a particularly elaborate exercise in geometry.⁴