The Canon of Polykleitos

The present study is an attempt to reconstruct the Canon of Polykleitos within the framework of the philosophical and practical principles of geometry available in Polykleitos's own time and to demonstrate the correspondence of this reconstruction to the Naples Doryphoros. It is proposed that Polykleitos chose a specific member of the human body, the distal phalange of the little finger, as a basic module for his system, and after establishing a length and width for it based on his observation of nature, he used it as a point of departure for determining all the proportions of the human figure. By applying the most basic concepts of Greek geometry—ratio, proportion, symmetria—he developed a system which used a geometric mean in continuous progression. The sculptor's simple, practical procedure required no mathematical calculation. It could have been completed in a short time using only a piece of cord with knots tied in it. The ancient literary sources on the Canon reveal only a vague knowledge of its system and fail to appreciate its thoroughly geometric character.