TV commercial · New Fiat 500 «The Fun-Size Review» · 2015

The Doryphoros and Chiambretti.

For the New Fiat 500 commercial with Piero Chiambretti — the 2015 spot poking fun at masculinity — we sculpted a life-size Doryphoros of Polykleitos, a copy of the classical Greek canon.

Story

One act

A Doryphoros
for the comedian.

In the summer of 2015 Fiat launched the New 500 eight years after the 2007 revolution — a light restyling (lights, bumpers, dashboard) after 1.5 million units sold. The launch commercial was called «The Fun-Size Review»: echoing the tone of the «blue pill» commercial for the 500X, it played ironically on masculinity and size.

On screen, Piero Chiambretti interacts with a copy of Polykleitos's Doryphoros — the 5th-century BC Greek sculpture that embodies the canon of ideal proportion. Chiambretti's voice-over recites: «When you touch a work of art, you have to know where to put your hands». The line is a double entendre that pays off in the final scene: the comedian amputates an anatomical detail from the Doryphoros, and an elderly lady picks it up off the ground in astonishment.

For that scene we were commissioned the life-size reproduction of the Doryphoros: a faithful copy of the original marble, chiastic pose (tensed arm opposite the relaxed leg), proportions perfectly matched to the rules of the Polykleitan Canon. But — and this is where craft comes in — the statue had to be «amputatable» on cue, and the detached piece had to fall convincingly.

Built in layered fibreglass, ivory lime-based base coat, surface patinated to imitate Apuan marble (the same technique we used for the Carrara cast in Konchalovsky's Sin). The detachable piece is engineered with a calibrated breakaway fitting: once pulled, it comes free without damaging the structure, and can be reattached for subsequent takes.

Frame from the 2015 New Fiat 500 commercial «The Fun-Size Review»: Piero Chiambretti next to Polykleitos's Doryphoros, life-size fibreglass copy sculpted by Creation Art, final scene with the amputated attribute on the ground — **The spot on air.** Piero Chiambretti next to the Doryphoros — frame from the final scene

Polykleitos's Doryphoros in our workshops during fabrication: life-size fibreglass copy of the Greek canon, chiastic pose, ivory finish in its final stage — **The Doryphoros in the workshop.** Fabrication stage before transport to the Fiat set

Behind the scenes

Polykleitos's Canon,
in 1:1 scale.

The Doryphoros is one of the most studied sculptures in Western art: it represents the ideal of physical perfection codified by Polykleitos in his (lost) treatise titled «Canon». Reproducing it at life size means honouring the mathematical rules of the original proportions.

The Polykleitan Canon

Polykleitos, a 5th-century BC Greek sculptor, wrote the Canon: a treatise that fixes the mathematical rules of the proportions of the human body. The core rule: total body height must be eight times the head height. The Doryphoros is the demonstrative statue of that treatise — the physical example of the theory.

The chiastic pose

The chiastic pose (X-shaped) is Polykleitos's invention: the tensed arm is paired with the opposite relaxed leg, and vice versa. The result is a sense of natural movement within a still figure — the end of archaic rigidity. The Doryphoros is the first Greek male nude that seems to breathe. Reproducing the pose is the core of the job.

The «amputatable» attribute

The director's specific request: the statue had to lose a piece during filming, in a controlled way. We engineered it with a calibrated breakaway fitting: the detachable piece is connected to the structure with a system that yields under targeted traction without damaging the rest of the sculpture. A technical solution at the service of an ad-spot gag.

1:1

the scale of the reproduction — life-size of the original Doryphoros

5th c. BC

the era of Polykleitos's original, a copy of the Canon treatise

1.5 M

Fiat 500s sold in the eight years before the 2015 restyling

Workshop pieces

The statue in the workshop,
before the shoot.

Photos from our archive during the fabrication of the Doryphoros: sculpting, fibreglass stiffening, polychrome ivory finish, calibration of the detachable detail.

Polykleitos's Doryphoros in the Creation Art workshops during fabrication: life-size fibreglass copy, front view during the ivory finish, chiastic pose with the left arm that originally held the spear — Doryphoros in finishing — front view

Polykleitos's Doryphoros in the workshop: rear or three-quarter view during fabrication, detail of the back muscles sculpted according to the classical Greek Canon — Doryphoros — muscle detail

Second life

Classical statuary
in Italian advertising.

Classical statuary used ironically is a recurring cliché of Italian advertising — especially when the product is a citycar that wants to communicate lightness and self-deprecating humour. The 2015 Chiambretti commercial is one of the best examples of the genre: treating the Greek Canon as comic material, not as a monument.

Our Apuan-stone cast technique — developed in the same years for Konchalovsky's «Sin» and for the Peroni commercial — comes in handy on every commission that calls for a fake but credible classical sculpture at life size, delivered to set in a few days and removed at wrap with no trace left behind.

Tech sheet

All production data

Type: Scenographic sculpture for a TV commercial · reproduction of a classical artwork
Commercial: «The Fun-Size Review» · New Fiat 500 launch campaign · 2015
Client: Fiat · FCA Group
Voice / performer: Piero Chiambretti · voice-over and on-screen lead
Sculpted subject: Doryphoros of Polykleitos (copy of the 5th-century BC bronze original, preserved in Roman copy at the Naples Archaeological Museum) · sculpted at life size
Pose: Polykleitan chiasmus — left arm extended to hold the spear (absent in our copy, as in many Roman replicas), right leg weight-bearing, left leg relaxed in flexion
Techniques: Hand-sculpted expanded polystyrene · layered fibreglass stiffening · ivory lime-based base · surface patinated to imitate Apuan marble (same technique as the Carrara cast for Sin) · calibrated breakaway fitting for the detachable detail
Theme of the commercial: Irony about masculinity and size · same narrative line as the 500X «blue pill» commercial · final scene: «amputated» piece picked up by an elderly lady
Our role: Full sculpture build — sculpting, stiffening, polychrome finish, controlled-release system for the detachable piece, delivery to set
Second life: Statue removed at wrap · Apuan-stone cast technique applied to subsequent commissions