(jazzy piano music) - [Steven] We're in the
Archaeological Museum in Florence, looking at a life-size
male nude figure in bronze. - [Beth] Now, we both saw
this from down the hallway, and thought immediately
about contrapposto, the Greek invention in
the fifth century BCE, a way of naturalistically
representing the human body. A real revolution in Western art. - [Steven] When we stand
naturally, in a relaxed pose, we tend to stand with our
weight on one leg or the other. In fact, if we stand for
an extended period of time, we tend to shift our weight from one leg to the
other every few minutes. It helps to rest the body. - [Beth] Nevertheless, when
the Greeks before this, or the Egyptians,
represented the human body, they represented the figure standing with their weight equally
distributed on both legs, making the figure appear very symmetrical. A way that you very rarely
see human beings in the world. - [Steven] I don't stand like that, and it's actually quite uncomfortable. - [Beth] I'm not standing
like that right now. - [Steven] But to represent a figure with weight on one leg is a
much more complex endeavor, because the entire body responds. Contrapposto affects not only the legs, but the torso, and to some extent, even potentially the
shoulders and the head. - [Beth] The ultimate effect
is a revolutionary one, because it creates a
figure who seems to exist in our world, by breaking the symmetry of the archaic Greek figures,
of Egyptian pharaohs. By breaking that symmetry, we get a sense of a figure who exists in our own world, a figure who is human like us. - [Steven] What I'm seeing first is a kind of S-curve in his spine, so that the hips seem
to jut out to his right, and his rib cage seems
to push to his left. - [Beth] And because his
weight is on his right leg, his left side is more elongated, because his left leg is
relaxed, pulling that hip down, and his right torso is compacted. - [Steven] And you can
see that very clearly if you look at the shift
in the axis of the hips. It also allows for that sway, not only in his body,
but in his spine as well. - [Beth] And then he
looks in the direction of the swayed hip. We also notice, while his
right leg is straight, his left arm is straight, and his right hand opens up toward us. In other examples of sculptures like this, from Classical Greece, for example, Polykleitos's Doryphoros,
that hand often held a spear. So you have the weight-bearing
hand on the right, and the weight-bearing leg on the right, the free leg on the left, and
the free hand on the left. - [Steven] And this affects
the shoulders, as well. If his right hip juts upward, his left shoulder falls down towards it. And so they're in opposition. And the same is true on the other side. On his left, his hip falls,
and his shoulder rises. - [Beth] The Greek
invention of contrapposto, in the fifth century BCE,
tells us that the Greeks have a different way of
thinking about human beings and their place in the world. This first naturalistic image of humanity, of human beings in the West, gives us a sense that the Greeks have a confidence in human
beings, in the human mind, in human reason, and we see
that through their philosophy, through their love of athleticism, through their invention of the Olympics, their study of the heavens, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, the great Greek comedies and tragedies, the confidence of Greek
culture in humanity, I think, is expressed in contrapposto. - [Steven] And this sculpture, because it's not actually
Greek, but Roman, a Roman copy of these Greek principles, shows us the influence of these ideas. The way that the Ancient
Romans emulated the Greeks, saw themselves as the
inheritor of this tradition, and it is through the
Romans that these ideas come down to us today. - [Beth] And then are
revived in the Renaissance. And here we are in Renaissance Florence, where sculptures like this one were rediscovered, were collected, and artists like
Donatello, Nanni di Banco, ultimately Michelangelo, and
Raphael in his paintings, will create figures that look back to Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, and the tremendous naturalism that the Ancient Greeks
and Romans achieved. (jazzy piano music)