Alexander Sechin
State Pedagogical University of Russia, Russia
Cuirasse esthétique (fr., literally “aesthetic cuirass”) is a schematic image of the male torso which can be traced back to the Canon (the Doryphoros) by Greek sculptor Polykleitos. Using K. Clark’s definition of the nude in fine art as an art form invented by the Greeks in the 5th century BC (i.e. during Polykleitos’ era) it is possible to treat Polykleitos’ torso as an ideal form of naked male body in art, direct or indirect one (as the muscle cuirass is designed to mimic an idealized human physique).
Clark believed that “it seems ungraceful in itself, and lacking in vitality” to the modern viewer, albeit in due time it was admired by many Renaissance artists — Mantegna’s images can serve as a striking example of such admiration and imitation. Thus, cuirasse esthétique, on the one hand, is in itself a mark of a certain aesthetic unity of antiquity and the Renaissance, while on the other, separates the specified eras from artistic culture of the Modern times, despite the fact it was popular, as we know, in the classicizing fine art in the 17th century and in Neoclassicism, and still exists in Academism.
In our opinion, the cuirasse esthétique in antiquity became a standard device of iconic rhetoric, and that may explain its wide circulation in art throughout long time. As such a device it can be described in terms and concepts of Aristotle’s Rhetoric that might specify its meaning in more detail. The ancient Greek philosopher distinguished “common topics (koinoi topoi), which may be applied alike to Law, Physics, Politics, and many other sciences that differ in kind”, from “specific topics or enthymemes (eide and gene)”, the latter dealing with particular subject matter and, at the time of writing of the treatise, “some [of them] already existing and others not yet established” (I, 2, 20–21). Cuirasse esthétique as a visual topic (eidos) in the best way corresponds to the epideictic (laudatory) kind of rhetorical speeches for which, according to Aristotle, a usual way of persuasion were comparison and amplification.