contrapposto
The position of a human figure whose hips and legs are twisted away from the direction of the head and shoulders; (countable) an instance of this.
uncountable
The Archaic kouros was always callipygian, the large buttocks more stressed and valued than the face. But the buttocks of the Kritios Boy have a feminine refinement, as erotic as breasts in Venetian painting. The contrapposto flexes one buttock and relaxes the other. The artist imagines them as apple and pear, glowing and compact.
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Italian contrapposto (“contrasting; opposing”, adjective), the past participle of contrapporre (“to set against, counter”), from Latin contrāpōnere, the present active infinitive of contrāpōnō (“to oppose; to place opposite”), from contrā (“against; contrary to”) + pōnō (“to place, put”). The plural form contrapposti is borrowed from Italian contrapposti, the masculine plural form of contrapposto.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry contrapposto (CC BY-SA 4.0).