Exploring this interplay, Guy Métraux shows how the depiction of physiological processes gave statues and reliefs their animating force and how many medical and philosophical speculations about the body were derived from depictions in art. He examines works such as the Omphalos Apollo, the relief of the Girl with Doves from Paros, and the recently discovered two bronze warriors from Riace, paying particular attention to developments in the depiction of breathing, blood vessels, and facial expression, to attempts to show actual or potential motion, and to the invention of contrapposto (asymmetry of stance). Sculptors and Physicians in Fifth-Century Greece is a fascinating examination of the interaction between art and ideas in Greek intellectual life.

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"An excellent book, ground-breaking and provocative. Métraux's argument is completely convincing. Sculptors and Physicians in Fifth-Century Greece will provide readers with a realistic context for early Classical sculpture, moving us far beyond traditional scholarship which has limited the study of Greek sculpture to, basically, connoisseurship." Carol Mattusch, Department of Art History, George Mason University