Contrapposto is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe 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.
A marble copy of Polykleitos' Doryphoros, an early example of classical contrapposto.
Kritios Boy. c. 480 BCE, was the first known Greek statue to use contrapposto.
Etruscan statuette, from Italy, 3rd to 1st century BCE, bronze
The Venus de Milo depicts an S-curve body shape. Greek, c. 130–100 BCE.
The art of Europe, also known as Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleolithic and the Iron Age. Written histories of European art often begin with the Aegean civilizations, dating from the 3rd millennium BC. However a consistent pattern of artistic development within Europe becomes clear only with Ancient Greek art, which was adopted and transformed by Rome and carried; with the Roman Empire, across much of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia.
Apelles painting Campaspe, an artwork which shows people surrounded by fine art; by Willem van Haecht; c. 1630; oil on panel; height: 104.9 cm, width: 148.7 cm; Mauritshuis (The Hague, the Netherlands)
Kosovo Maiden; by Uroš Predić; 1919; oil on canvas; 1.95 x 2.64m; National Museum of Serbia (Belgrade, Serbia)
The Art of Painting; by Johannes Vermeer; 1666–1668; oil on canvas; 1.3 x 1.1 m; Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)
Venus of Willendorf; c. 26,000 BC (the Gravettian period); limestone with ocre coloring; Naturhistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)
