Contrapposto (visual arts)

Contrapposto (pronounced kohn-truh-pos-toh) is an art term that is used to describe the positioning of a statue so that most of the weight of the figure rests on one leg, while the other leg remains relaxed. This allows the remainder of the body to convey a sense of dynamism to an otherwise static work of art. The word contrapposto means "counterpose" in Italian, which in turn was borrowed from the Latin term contrapositum. It remains a common way of posing sculptures in contemporary art. It may be used for either draped or nude figures and has been a recurring method of articulating statues since ancient times. Famous examples of contrapposto statues include the Kritios Boy from circa 480 BCE, Donatello's Saint Mark (1413), and Michelangelo's David (1504).

Brief History

Many statues in antiquity depicted figures standing rigidly and fully symmetrical, with backs straight and both legs planted directly under the body. This gave the sculpture an unrealistic and inflexible positioning, as if they were standing at attention. To some extent, art historians believe this may have sometimes been a deliberate style employed by artists to portray such figures as gods and heroes as supernatural and inhuman. In other cases, the statues were built to serve as ornamentation for buildings. In these instances, they often served to frame or complement pillars or columns. These figures were often clothed, with their drapery covering their bodies and obscuring their positioning.

A second style of posing used in Greek statuary emerged during the Archaic period of Greek history (600 BCE to 480 BCE). Called kouros or kore, these human-sized figures depicted either a naked young man (a kouros) or woman (a kore) in more realistic detail than earlier works. While the realism that they employed represented advancement over earlier sculptural pieces, they were still less fluid than later works. Toward the end of the Archaic period and the beginning of the Classical period (480 BCE to 323 BCE), sculptors began to offer more realistic anatomical and facial details to kore and kouros that may have been intended to depict individuality. This era also marked the start of the Severe style of art in which statues were crafted with grave expressions and more austere clothing.

Beginning in the fifth century BCE, ancient Greek sculptors began increasingly to experiment with shape and form. They tried to present a more synchronized communion of body and movement that emulated real life. The oldest known statue to employ the contrapposto style was the Kritios Boy, a statue uncovered at the Greek Acropolis in 1866. This marble statue is believed to be the work of an ancient sculptor named Kritios, after whom it was named.

The Kritios Boy depicts a curly-haired, nude young man, possibly an athlete. While his upper body remains comparatively stiff and upright, his hips are shifted to the left side so that his weight is born on his left leg. This enables his right leg to assume a more relaxed state in which the knee is bent. To allow the statue to take this pose, the sculptor shifted the line of the body accordingly, so that the spine forms an S shape and the shoulders dip to the left in opposition to the hips. The positioning used in the Kritios Boy became the de facto style of sculptural posing in Greek art. However, over time, the contrapposto style led to even more relaxed postures that presented figures in a state of realistic repose. This presentation of human physicality and vigor also led to the abandonment of the Severe style of facial expression. As the figures were being presented with more physical expression, the facial restraint used in the Severe style seemed increasingly ill-fitting for contrapposto sculpture.

The contrapposto technique was regularly used in Classical Greek, Roman, and Far Eastern art. However, by the Middle Ages, it had fallen into relative obscurity. It saw a renewed level of interest during the Neo-Classical phase of Renaissance art beginning in the early thirteenth century. It was during this era that artists first began to refer to this style of sculptural positioning as contrapposto. Artists such as Donatello and Leonardo da Vinci employed this technique to portray both the vitality of human movement and their ability to present it. The contrapposto style ultimately became a favored tool of such High Renaissance masters as Michelangelo, Giambologna, and Caravaggio.

Overview

Typically, contrapposto figures stand with one leg (usually the left) planted under the weight of the body, allowing the second leg to be relaxed. This allows the sculptor to position the remainder of the body at a series of angles that present a more natural shape to the body. It creates a spirit of vigor and vitality that cannot be achieved by simple upright posing. The contrapposto style allowed artists to generate a more lifelike impression than previous works. This method enabled them to experiment with positions that implied physical motion despite the limitations presented by hard stone. This was a physical manifestation of the Greek principle of humanism, which sought to explore the untapped potential of the human body and mind.

The relaxed leg, which is called the engaged leg, is bent slightly at the knee or hip. The engaged foot must be placed under the center of gravity of the whole statue for the contrapposto positioning to work. This pose tends to cause the shape of the statue's body to form an s-curve in which the hips and shoulders are bent at opposite angles. The spine in a contrapposto figure is slightly bent, and the line of the axes of both the lines of the shoulders and pelvis are perpendicularly oriented to the spine. This allows the sculptor to maintain the overall balance of the statue over the footprint of the engaged leg.

Renaissance artists revived interest in Classical art and its techniques. For instance, Donatello's Saint Mark located at the Orsanmichele Church in Florence, Italy, placed renewed emphasis on natural posing. Clothed in heavy robes as befitting the dignity of a saint, Donatello's statue still manages to convey a sense of humanity and vigor underneath the thick material through his use of contrapposto. Michelangelo's David uses contrapposto to express the vitality and strength of the biblical hero. Although the statue portrays David before his fight with Goliath, it nonetheless expresses a sense of both motion and tension, presenting the hero as he prepares emotionally, physically, and mentally for battle. Michelangelo's use of contrapposto allowed the statue to transcend its religious origins and symbolically represent Florence in its desire to be viewed as a powerful and independent civic entity. The contrapposto pose continues to be used in the visual arts in the twenty-first century.

Bibliography

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