Brief body Image of Ancient Greece

In modern society, we're shown depictions of the ideal human form that are anatomically wrong. Although appealing, these images are an unattainable goal. This obsession with how a human body should look like has plagued humans for all time and it seems to be that our, "brain is hard-wired to focus upon parts of objects with pleasing associations. So if you were an artist, the tendency would be to reproduce human figures with parts that mattered the most to you", according to neuroscientists. This neurological ideal is called peak shift, where the human form is exaggerated. This is as true today as it was in Ancient Greece with sculptures depicting the "ideal" form.

Greek sculptors were taught the craft of sculpting from the Egyptians and the first sculptures "were truly realistic depictions of the human body, like Kritian Boy (above)..., but within a generation they stopped this realism because it was too real". The Greeks then began to distort the human form in mathematical ways that would be appealing for the viewer. In 450 BC a Greek sculptor called  Polyclitus came up with a technique to display his sculpture in a way that showed him relaxed but ready to move. A famous statue that displayed this "ideal" physique was the Riace Bronzes.

 

 

 

The statue may look realistic but its actually anatomically wrong. The legs have been made longer to be in better proportion with the torso.

Sites:
http://www.pbs.org/howartmadetheworld/episodes/human/greece/
http://www.pbs.org/howartmadetheworld/episodes/human/