During the early classical period Greek sculpture changed radically, becoming much more lifelike. At the same time physicians such as Hippocrates developed new ideas about human life and health, and philosophers rethought their attitudes about nature. Sculptors and Physicians in Fifth-Century Greece is an investigation of the interplay of sculptors, physicians, and philosophers at a time crucial to the development of classical art.

Exploring this interplay, Guy Metraux 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 two recently discovered 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).