"What's That?" Wednesday

Well, it's Wednesday again, and here's a little something that my high school Visual Arts 2 students learned within the last couple of weeks.

Early on, sculptures of people were very stiff and straight, and just lacked a certain element of realism.  Picture  early Egyptian sculpture:

The ancient Greeks figured out a way to make sculpture look a little more "human."  The technique they developed is called contrapposto.  The figure in the sculpture appears to have most of their weight on one leg, with the rest of their body aligned accordingly.  This gives the sculpture the look of person who was moving, and then paused for a moment.  Michelangelo's "David" is the perfect example of contrapposto in use.

Notice how Michelangelo seems to have captured an actual moment in David's life, rather than just having him pose for a sculpture.  I guess, if you compare photography and sculpture, the use of contrapposto would be like a candid photo rather than a portrait.

Ciao,
Donna