Everything about Contrapposto totally explained
Contrapposto is an
Italian term meaning "counterpoise" used in the
visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs. This gives the figure a more dynamic, or alternatively relaxed appearance. It can also encompass the
tension as a figure changes from resting on a given leg to walking or running upon it (so-called
ponderation). Contrapossto is less emphasized than the more sinuous
S-Curve.
Contrapposto has been used since the dawn of classical western sculpture. According to the
canon of the Classical Greek
Sculptor Polykleitos in the fourth century B.C., it's one of the most important characteristics of his figurative works and those of his successors,
Lysippos,
Skopas, etc. The Polykletian statues for example
Discophoros and
Doryphoros are idealized athletic young men with the divine sense, and captured in contrapposto. In these works, the pelvis is no longer
axial with the
vertical statue as in the
archaic style of earlier Greek sculpture until the
Ephebe-statue of
Kritios ca. 490-480 B.C.
Contrapposto can be clearly seen in the
Roman copies of the statues of
Hermes and
Heracles. A famous example is the marble statue of Hermes with the infant
Dionysus in
Olympia by
Praxiteles. It can also be seen in the Roman copies of Polyclitus'
amazon.
Classical contrapposto was revived in the
Renaissance by the Italian artists
Donatello and
Leonardo da Vinci, followed by
Michelangelo,
Raphael and other artists of the
High Renaissance. One of the major achievements of the
Italian Renaissance was the re-discovery of contrapposto, although in
Mannerism it became greatly over-used.
The term shouldn't be confused with the somewhat similar
musical term
contrapunto.
Contrapposto was an extremely important sculptural development for it's the first time in Western art that the human body is used to express a psychological disposition. The balanced, harmonious pose of the
Kritios Boy suggests a calm and relaxed state of mind, an evenness of temperament that's part of the ideal of man represented. From this point onwards Greek sculptors went on to explore how the body could convey the whole range of human experience, culminating in the desperate anguish and pathos of
Laocoön and his Sons (1st century AD) in the Hellenistic period.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Contrapposto'.
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