contrapposto

In the visual arts, a pose in which one part of the body twists away from another part, the weight of the body being balanced on one leg rather than two. First achieved in Greek sculpture of the 6th century BC, contrapposto was revived in the free-standing statues of the Renaissance, notably Donatello's David (1430s; Bargello, Florence) and Michelangelo's David (1504; Accademia, Florence).

Allowing for greater expressiveness and a use of sinuous line, it was subsequently employed and much elaborated upon by Mannerist painters and sculptors.