The Doryphoros (spear carrier)
The Doryphoros (spear carrier)
Dateca. 440 BCE
Mediummarble
Dimensionsobject: 49 1/4 × 23 × 12 in. (125.1 × 58.4 × 30.5 cm)
object with base: 1 Ton 180 lb. (988.8 kg)
ClassificationSCULPTURE
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of Wright S. Ludington
Object number1955.3.1
Subject(s)
- men
- figure
- nudes
Collection
- Antiquity
Sub-Collection(s)
- Roman
On View
Not on viewLabel TextThe Doryphoros or Spearbearer, a bronze statue produced by the ancient Greek sculptor Polykleitos ca. 460 BCE and now lost, was among the most famous statues in antiquity. Along with a treatise written by the sculptor and called the Canon (rule or law), the statue established the basic form of the classical male nude in Western art. As the Roman writer Pliny the Elder wrote in the first century CE, “Polykleitos…alone of men is deemed to have rendered art itself in a world of art.” This sculpture is thought to be an ancient copy of the bronze original, one of many that have been found from ancient times.
