Canon = Rule or Measure

In 450 BCE Polykelitos, the best known theorist of Classical Greece developed a set of rules for constructing the ideal human body. He documented these rules in a treatise called “The Canon.”  According to his canon, the proportions of the human body can be calculated using a module, or small body part such as the nose or finger. He not only studied the ratios of the proportions of the entire human body, but he also analyzed the distribution of weight in the arms and legs of a relaxed figure.   Polykleitos demonstrated this by constructing a larger than life bronze statue of a man known as The Spear Carrier.  Unfortunately, neither the treatise nor the statue survived; so the statue that I will be analyzing is actually a Roman copy that is made of marble. 

This sculpture depicts a nude, upright man, who would have been carrying a spear during the time in which this statue was created. The position of his body, also referred to as contrapposto, is illustrating the movement of walking and coming to a standstill. Unlike the statues of Archaic Greece, such as the Kouros, this statue is conveying a sort of narrative. The viewer can imaging that the man depicted was once walking and is now stopping.  In many cases the viewer can visualize what the statue would look like once the man came to a standstill. This difference sense of time also projects a different sense of self. 

As opposed to the Archaic Greeks who had not yet developed a unified sense of self, the Classical Greeks began to view themselves as a more continuous and unified being.  During the Classical period, many people began to investigate the world with a more rational approach, and a good example of this would be Polykleitos’ Spear Carrier.  The idea of "beauty" emerged through the philosophy of Plato, who believed that beauty did not necessarily mean attractive, but was more of a way to define something as closer to the good. Mathematics, as used in Polykleitos’ sculpture, is something of a higher order which cannot be grasped using the senses alone. Mathematics alone is what makes the Spear Carrier, in some sense, good. 
Overall I feel that this was a pretty good analysis; however after rereading it, I feel that it sounds a little disjointed. My weakest and probably most irrelevant paragraph would have to be my last. It's obvious that I do not fully grasp the concept of mathematics as related to the good. I tried to incorporate some information from Art History I to make it sound a little better, but I don't think that it helped. As Socrates would say, I am displaying my ignorance on the subject by trying to act like I am actually wise. I admit that I am not wise, and that my analysis is not perfect. 

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