Wenuszmf.jpg, The ''

Venus de Milo The ''Venus de Milo'' or ''Aphrodite of Melos'' is an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek marble sculpture that was created during the Hellenistic art, Hellenistic period. Its exact dating is uncertain, but the modern consensus places it in the 2nd ...

'' statue has an S-curve form. Chiasmo Contrapposto-Canone Canon policleteo (3pages)-scheme-diagram-photo Paolo Villa 2024 CC BY-SA 4.0 (and italian Law & MiC)- Doryphoros by Polykleitos, photo-scheme-diagram.pdf, Diagram S-curve form of

Doryphoros The ''Doryphoros'' (Greek Δορυφόρος Classical Greek , "Spear-Bearer"; Latinised as ''Doryphorus'') of Polykleitos is one of the best known Greek sculptures of Classical antiquity, depicting a solidly built, muscular, standing warrior, o ...

by Polykleitos In the visual arts, an S-curve is an '' S''-shaped

curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point. This is the definition that ...

that serves a wide variety of compositional purposes. The term is usually applied to the standing human figure bending first one way and then back the other. It may also be applied more generally, for example in

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a cohe ...

and photography.

Human figure

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

and

Roman sculpture The study of Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Sculpture of Ancient Greece, Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the ''Apollo Belvedere'' and ''Barberini Faun'', are known only from Roman ...

, the S-curve is a traditional art concept where the figure's body and posture is depicted like a sinuous or serpentine manner. It is related to and is an extension of the art term of

contrapposto ( 'counterpoise'), in the visual arts, is a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the axial plane. First appearing in Ancient Greece in the early 5th ...

which is when a figure is depicted slouching or placing one's weight and thus

center of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. For ...

to one side. However, the S Curve involves more of the body than the contrapposto, and is therefore considered to be a more advanced technical development. The "S Curve" concept was probably invented by the famous Greek sculptor

Praxiteles Praxiteles (; ) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attic sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubitably attributable sculpture ...

, son of Kifissodotos, who lived in the 4th century BC. The Indian

tribhanga Tribhaṅga or Tribunga is a standing body position or stance used in traditional Indian art and Indian classical dance forms like the Odissi, where the body bends in one direction at the knees, the other direction at the hips and then the oth ...

("three bend") pose is similar, but generally more pronounced, often with the neck also curved to one side. This goes back to at least 100 BC. The S-curve was revived in

Gothic art Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Northern Europe, Norther ...

from the 14th century onwards, especially in sculptures of the Madonna.Gunderson, Jessica, ''Gothic Art'', p. 36, 2008, The Creative Company, , 9781583416105
google books
/ref> Gothic figures in ivory, typically of the Madonna, had already acquired a "Gothic sway" to one side to fit into the curved tusk, and curving the head or upper body back the other gave a more satisfactory result. The

figura serpentinata () is a style in painting and sculpture, intended to make the figure seem more dynamic, that is typical of Mannerism. It is similar, but not identical, to '' contrapposto'', and features figures often in a spiral pose. Early examples can be see ...

is a variant or development of the pose. The term is usually applied only to art from the Renaissance onwards, and

Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), known mononymously as Donatello (; ), was an Italian Renaissance sculpture, Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sc ...

is often regarded as its inventor. While in all these periods the S-curve originated in sculpture, it was also used in two-dimensional figures in various other media. File:German - Virgin and Child - Walters 71233 (cropped2).jpg, Madonna and Child, German, 14th-century File:Saint Barbara (The Cloisters).jpg, ''

Saint Barbara Saint Barbara (; ; ; ), known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an Early Christianity, early Christian Greek saint and martyr. There is no reference to her in the authentic early Christian writings nor in the origin ...

'', German (?), 1490 File:Giambologna raptodasabina.jpg, '' Abduction of a Sabine Woman'', 1579–1583.

Loggia dei Lanzi file:Firenze, loggia dei lanzi (2020) 01.jpg, 300px, The Loggia dei Lanzi, also called the Loggia della Signoria, is a building on the south corner of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, Italy, adjoining the Uffizi, Uffizi Gallery (leading t ...

, Florence File:Flöte spielender Gott Krishna Museum Rietberg RVI 530.jpg, Indian

("three bend") posed bronze

Krishna Krishna (; Sanskrit language, Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God (Hinduism), Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, c ...

playing flute,

Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...

, c. 1800

Landscape

An S-curve can help guide the viewer's eye through the image to the main subject at the end of the curve, but can also serve as a subject in and of itself. It has been variously described as dynamic, feminine, restful, and hypnotic. The S-curve is particularly prominent in a vertical composition, where it may be stacked to form a double S-curve for maximum effect.

References

{{Reflist Ancient Greek art History of sculpture History of art Human positions Composition in visual art