The Roman marble copy of Lysippos’s bronze original, Apoxyomenos, standing at just less than seven feet tall in the Musei Vaticani in Rome was sculpted with particular proportions in mind. Contrary to the canon proportions established by Polykleitos in the previous century, Lysippos designed his own canon to create the sculpture Apoxyomenos circa 330 BCE. As a result, the young athlete featured by the sculpture exhibits a more slender, seemingly taller body and a head approximately one-eighth the size of the body.
In addition to introducing altered proportions that gave the sculpted athlete’s body longer and leaner qualities, Lysippos also carved the sculpture with properties that exhibit a sense of action, motion, and energy. The athlete stands in classic contropposto form, with the weight of the statue on the left leg, a relaxed right leg, and a slightly tilted head. Transcending the concept of contropposto, however, Lysippos portrays the athlete in an unbalanced stance and utilizes the positioning of the statue’s arms to create the illusion of motion. Rather than focusing on the pose in which the athlete is depicted, the viewer is able to imagine what action he will complete next.
Furthermore, the Apoxyomenos seems to break free from its surrounding space. Lysippos sculpted the statue in a manner that encourages the viewer to observe it from all perspectives. The frontward extended arm in particular prompts the observer to examine the form from several different angles.
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