The Doryphoros is one of the best known Greek sculptures

Ancient Greek sculpture

Ancient Greek sculpture is the sculpture of Ancient Greece. Modern scholarship identifies three major stages. They were used to depict the battles, mythology, and rulers of the land known as Ancient Greece.-Geometric:...

 of the classical era in Western Art and an early example of Greek classical contrapposto

Contrapposto

Contrapposto is an Italian term that means counterpose. 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. This gives the figure a more dynamic, or alternatively relaxed...

. The lost bronze original would have been made at approximately 450-400 BCE.

The Greek sculptor Polykleitos

Polykleitos

Polykleitos ; called the Elder, was a Greek sculptor in bronze of the fifth and the early 4th century BCE...

 designed a work, perhaps this one, as an example of the "canon

Aesthetic canon

A canon in the sphere of visual arts and aesthetics, or an aesthetic canon, is a rule for proportions, so as to produce a harmoniously formed figure.-Evolution:...

" or "rule", showing the perfectly harmonious and balanced proportions of the human body in the sculpted form.