The golden section in the art of ancient Greece: an anthropometric study of the young warrior of Riace

Abstract

More than half a century after their discovery in the Ionian Sea near Riace Marina (Italy, 1972 CE), the Riace Bronzes continue to fascinate and interest. They are a pair of statues most likely sculpted in Greece in the mid-5th century and are considered masterpieces of Classical Greek sculpture. Many studies have been conducted, yet there are no morphometric studies that delve into their facial features. The aim of this study is to determine dentofacial characteristics and the presence of golden ratios in the so-called “young-man” warrior statue, equipped with a silver foil to represent the upper teeth. The interpupillar, interalar, intercanthal distances and mesio-distal diameter of the upper central incisors were subjected to virtual photogrammetry (GIMP-GNU Image Manipulation Programme). The presence of vertical and horizontal golden ratios between different landmarks (intercanthal distance: centre of the nose; centre of pupils: base of nose: base of upper incisors; centre of pupil-base of nose: base of upper incisors-base of chin; centre of pupils- base of upper incisors: base of the chin) were analysed using a dedicated software (PhiMatrix). The face and teeth satisfy most of golden canons, as also corroborated by the one-way ANOVA-statistic test (p < 0.05) for repeated measurements by independent expert operators. The virtual golden facial grid should confirm an ovoid face, which should match the same dental shape. The statue design stems from the search for beauty as divine proportion, and a relatively small detail such as teeth seems to have been carefully programmed.