Contrapposto

Contrapposto is the Italian word for "counterpoise", referring to an analytical sculptural technique in which the artist illustrates the natural counterbalance of the body through the bending of the hips in one direction and the legs in another direction. The weight is balanced on one foot. The term was coined during the Italian Renaissance, while the style itself is ancient.

File:Hermes by Praxiteles.jpg

Hermes by Praxiteles.

The first civilization to use contrapposto was the ancient Greeks. Greek life-sized sculpture began in the Archaic period with statues of standing youths, kore (pl. korai) being female figures and kouros (pl. kouroi) male. These artworks were based on the ancient Egyptian model: very rigid and formal, with movement expressed only through one foot being placed slightly in front of the other. The first Greek statue to exhibit contrapposto is the famed Kritios Boy. Contrapposto soon became a defining element of Greek sculptural technique, culminating in the Canon of the Doryphoros ("spear-bearer"), which adopted extremely dynamic and sophisticated contrapposto.

One of the major achievements of the Italian Renaissance was the re-discovery of contrapposto.

Famous sculptures incorporating contrapposto include Michelangelo's David.

The term should not be confused with the very similar musical term contrapunto.

Contrapposto was an extremely important sculptural development for it is 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 is 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 Laöcoon and his Sons (1st century AD) in the Hellenistic period.

See also

• Greek statue
• Classical Contrapost