Phedias And Polykleitos Analysis

By the Late Classical Period and late 5th century, sculptors worked within the rules and standards of ideal proportion and the human figure set by Phedias and Polykleitos. The Late Classical sculptor, Praxiteles, carved from marble Hermes and the Infant Dionysos, although what survives is possibly a copy from the romans or Hellenistic period. Hermes has a small head then the figures before, his body is also sensual and in a graceful loose-limb stance. The significance about this sculpture is the interaction and narrative shared between the two subjects. Praxiteles’ Aphrodite for The City Kindos, took the female figure out of drapery into the full nude, which during this time was a representation of a lower status. The narrative is of the goddess
Aphrodite as she is interrupted while bathing. Making a delicate concealing motion with her right hand, Aphrodite is composed and modest about the reveal of her body. This is one of the first known depictions of the human female in a nude form. Praxiteles would be highly respected due to his approach of the female figure done in marble. This statue is of Praxiteles’ imagination of what the goddess he obviously had not seen, would be like. So he sculpted as he imagined as she would be: human-like with outstanding beauty as well as flaws. Lysippos, in treating the human figure, modified the proportions set by the canon of Polykleitos, making the head smaller, the form slender, the muscles close-lying. A new development of movement in the torso, head, and limbs all facing in different directions indicated a momentary change of action. Hellenistic sculpture was based largely on the style he introduced.