Which Greek sculptor wrote the Canon, a treatise on ideal proportions?

The Greek sculptor who wrote the Canon, a treatise on ideal proportions, was Polykleitos.

Polykleitos was a prominent sculptor of the Classical period, active in the fifth century BCE and traditionally associated with Argos. His Canon, or “Rule,” described how the human body could be represented through mathematical relationships among its parts. The original treatise is lost, but later writers, especially Galen, preserved summaries of its ideas.

The Canon was probably illustrated by Polykleitos’s Doryphoros, or “Spear Bearer,” a nude male figure whose balanced stance became a model of Classical Greek art. The statue’s contrapposto pose shifts weight onto one leg while creating opposing movements through the hips and shoulders. This balance expressed the Greek concept of symmetria, or harmonious proportion.

A common mix-up is to assume the Canon survives as a complete ancient text or that it prescribed one simple body ratio. In reality, scholars reconstruct its principles from literary references and Roman copies of Polykleitos’s sculptures. His system influenced later artists, although other sculptors, including Lysippos, developed different ideals of proportion.