The marble ''Kritios Boy'' or ''Kritian Boy'' belongs to the Early Classical period of

ancient Greek sculpture The sculpture of ancient Greece is the main surviving type of fine ancient Greek art as, with the exception of painted ancient Greek pottery, almost no ancient Greek painting survives. Modern scholarship identifies three major stages in monument ...

. It is the first statue from

classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

known to use

contrapposto ''Contrapposto'' () is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the a ...

; Janson, H.W. (1995) ''History of Art''. 5th edn. Revised and expanded by Anthony F. Janson. London:

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

, p. 139.

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...

called it "the first beautiful nude in art" Clark, Kenneth. (2010) ''The Nude: A study in ideal form''. New edition. London:

The Folio Society The Folio Society is a London-based publisher, founded by Charles Ede in 1947 and incorporated in 1971. Formerly Private company limited by shares, privately owned, it operates as an employee ownership trust since 2021. It produces illustrate ...

, pp. 24-25. It is possible, even likely, that earlier bronze statues had used the technique, but if they did, they have not survived and Susan Woodford has speculated that the statue is a copy of a bronze original.Woodford, Susan. (1982) ''The Art of Greece and Rome''. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, pp. 13-14. The ''Kritios Boy'' is thus named because it is attributed, on slender evidence, to

Kritios Kritios ((; ( grc, Κριτίος) was an Athenian sculptor, probably a pupil of Antenor, working in the early 5th century BCE, whose manner is on the cusp of the Late Archaic and the Severe style of Early Classicism in Attica. He was the teacher ...

, who worked together with

Nesiotes Kritios ((; ( grc, Κριτίος) was an Athenian sculptor, probably a pupil of Antenor, working in the early 5th century BCE, whose manner is on the cusp of the Late Archaic and the Severe style of Early Classicism in Attica. He was the teacher ...

(sculptors of ''

Harmodius and Aristogeiton Harmodius (Greek: Ἁρμόδιος, ''Harmódios'') and Aristogeiton (Ἀριστογείτων, ''Aristogeíton''; both died 514 BC) were two lovers in Classical Athens who became known as the Tyrannicides (τυραννόκτονοι, ''tyranno ...

'') or their school, from around 480 BC. As currently mounted, the statue is considerably smaller than life-size at 117 cm (3 ft 10 ins), Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''.7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing, p. 122. including the supports that replace the missing feet.

Discovery

The statue was excavated on the

Acropolis of Athens The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. Th ...

, among the "

Perserschutt The Perserschutt, a German term meaning "Persian debris" or "Persian rubble", refers to the bulk of architectural and votive sculptures that were damaged by the invading Persian army of Xerxes I on the Acropolis of Athens in 480 BC, in the Destruc ...

", the ceremonial dump in which the Athenians buried the debris of sacred artefacts destroyed by the marauding Persian army in 480 BC. It is on display in the

Acropolis Museum The Acropolis Museum ( el, Μουσείο Ακρόπολης, ''Mouseio Akropolis'') is an archaeological museum focused on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was built to house every artifact found on ...

, Athens, near the site where it was excavated. The torso was found in 1865 while excavating the foundation of the old museum at the Athenian Acropolis. The head of this statue was found twenty-three years later between the museum and the Acropolis south wall, in the latest stage of the rubble of destruction undergone in the

Persian Wars The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world of the ...

. This fact, in conjunction with the analysis of its style, is essential to the dating of the statue.

Significance

Whether or not Kritios was the innovator, with the ''Kritios Boy'' (''

ephebos ''Ephebos'' (ἔφηβος) (often in the plural ''epheboi''), also anglicised as ''ephebe'' (plural: ''ephebes'') or archaically ''ephebus'' (plural: ''ephebi''), is a Greek term for a male adolescent, or for a social status reserved for that ...

'') the Greek artist has mastered a complete understanding of how the different parts of the body act as a system. The statue moves away from the rigid and stiff pose of the Archaic style. ''Kritios Boy'' presents a more relaxed and naturalistic pose known as

. This stance forces a chain of anatomical events: as the pelvis is pushed diagonally upwards on the left side, the right buttock relaxes, the spine acquires an "S" curve, and the shoulder line dips on the left to counteract the action of the pelvis. Among classic Greek sculptures, the Kritios Boy expresses the "

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

of Polyclitus" and his pupils. It set the rule for later sculptors like

Praxiteles Praxiteles (; el, Πραξιτέλης) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubita ...

and

Lysippos Lysippos (; grc-gre, Λύσιππος) was a Ancient Greek sculpture, Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the Ancient Greece, Classical Greek era, bri ...

, whose contrapposto, or ponderation, is more emphasised than the "subtle equilibrium of outline and axis which is to be the basis of classical art" exhibited by the Kritios Boy's "delicate balance of movement" The ''Kritios Boy'' exhibits a number of other critical innovations that distinguish it from the Archaic ''Kouroi'' from the seventh and sixth century BC that paved its way. The Archaic style relied more on geometrical shapes to define the contours of the human body. The muscular and skeletal structure of ''Kritios Boy'' are depicted with unforced lifelike accuracy of flesh and bone, with the rib cage naturally expanded as if in the act of breathing, with a relaxed attitude and hips which are distinctly narrower. Sculptors had begun to break away from the rules of the Archaic style and follow representation that was closer to nature. As a final forebear of the classical period, the archaic smile has been completely replaced by the accurate rendering of the lips and the austere expression that characterized the transitional Severe style. It was created in same era as the '' Blond Kouros's Head of the Acropolis'' and the group of the "

Tyrannicide Tyrannicide is the killing or assassination of a tyrant or unjust ruler, purportedly for the common good, and usually by one of the tyrant's subjects. Tyrannicide was legally permitted and encouraged in the Classical period. Often, the term tyran ...

. A good example for comparison is the marble statue of an ''ephebos'' in the museum in

Agrigento Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one of ...

Notes and references

External links

Der Kritios-Knabe: front view

Virtuelles Antiken Museum

Image

Tufts

{{Authority control Archaic Greek sculptures 5th-century BC Greek sculptures Acropolis Museum Archaeological discoveries in Greece 1866 archaeological discoveries