1 Ancient ideals

In previous weeks you have examined appearance in terms of the face, but the entire body, particularly musculature, was also used to determine a healthy physique. Each culture will have its ideal body type, but physical strength is generally a sign of health achieved through exercise.

Figure 1 The Doryphoros of Polykleitos

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Photograph of a classical Greek sculpture in marble, of a naked, well-muscled man in a standing pose, his left leg bent slightly as his weight is borne by his right leg. His left arm is also bent and his hand closed in a relaxed grip, indicating that he may once have had a spear balanced on his left shoulder. His hair is short and he has no beard.

Figure 1 The Doryphoros of Polykleitos

Where does the Western image of the ideal body come from? Figure 1 is of Polykleitos’ Doryphoros, which means ‘The Spear Bearer’. This is a Roman copy of an original Greek image dating to the mid-fifth century BCE, and is in perfect proportion: it shows an ideal physical body.

Most of the now-famous statues from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds were discovered in the Renaissance, dug up in northern and central Italy in vineyards and gardens, studied, and then used as models by artists. In the Western world, you can still see many of these statues as well as Renaissance images based on them, such as Michelangelo’s David. But their impact extends far beyond museums. For example, the Venus de Milo still appears as a symbol of ‘woman’.

Figure 2 Venus de Milo on a World Aids Day poster

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Image of a poster depicting the Venus de Milo statue alongside six photographs of women of all sorts, representing an advertisement for an exhibition of posters and videos on AIDS. The poster is headed: ‘AIDS: all the world’s women are concerned’.

Figure 2 Venus de Milo on a World Aids Day poster

Figure 3 A scholar’s study containing a statuette of the Venus de Milo

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Image of a print depicting a scholar’s study containing a number of objects of interest to a scholar, on the desk, on top of the bookshelves and on the wall. These include a bust of Shakespeare, a profile portrait of Charles Darwin in a roundel, and statuettes of the Sphinx and of the Venus de Milo.

Figure 3 A scholar’s study containing a statuette of the Venus de Milo

In her film of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Leni Riefenstahl recreated Myron’s Discobolus, a statue of a man about to throw the discus. In it she showed the statue, which then dissolved into the decathlete Erwin Huber recreating the pose.

Figure 4 Still image taken from 1936 film Olympia.

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Still image from the film Olympia, of a male athlete posed as though about to throw the discus he is holding in his left hand. Only the upper part of his body is in view. His chest is naked, and he is bending forward and twisting his torso to the left, as the arm holding the discus swings backwards in readiness for his throw.

Figure 4 Still image taken from 1936 film Olympia.

The Nazis’ aesthetic inspiration from ancient Greece and Rome, and the Discobolus, featured prominently in the opening of Riefenstahl’s film. One version of the Discobolus was bought by Adolf Hitler, who in 1938 encouraged the German people to visit it by saying that it showed ‘how splendid man used to be in the beauty of his body’. Watch Video 2 now which discusses the impact of the Discobolus both for the Nazis and for its original audience in the fifth century BCE.

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Transcript: Video 2 Ancient ideals

NARRATOR

The 20th of April, 1938, was a very special day here in Munich. It was Adolf Hitler’s birthday. Five years after taking power, things were going well for the Fuehrer. And he decided to celebrate turning 49 with a screening of his favourite film.

The film was Olympia directed by Hitler’s star filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl. And it was a celebration of the recent Olympic games held in Germany which Hitler had used as an occasion to promote his vision of a strong, healthy, not to say aggressive, new nation.

The film opened with a remarkable sequence, a montage of ancient Greek sculpture. The star of the show was a sculpture known as the Discobolus, the discus thrower, created in the fifth century BC by the sculptor Myron. Riefenstahl showed this statue morphing into a real live German athlete. This image of the perfect classical body reborn utterly entranced the Fuehrer.

Scarcely a month after Hitler’s birthday screening of Olympia, the statue itself arrived in Munich bought by the Nazis for a record price of 5 million lira. A cast of the statue can still be found at the former Nazi headquarters in Munich.

To really understand Myron’s discus thrower, you have to put it in context and compare it with the sort of statues that were common just a generation or two earlier. For a century or more, Greek artists had created thousands of standing nude men. They had a certain presence, but they’re also fairly stiff and formal and distinctly unlifelike.

And then in the fifth century BC, with his bronze Discobolus, Myron blew all of that apart. Suddenly we find this naturalistic athlete mid flow. And that spiralling composition is so dynamic, so fluid, a vortex of compressed pent-up soon-to-be-released energy. Myron wanted here to dramatise an ephemeral moment, an instant that he’d ripped from reality. And yet, the result was so satisfying and harmonious that it felt timeless all the same.

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Video 2 Ancient ideals