Kritios Boy
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The Kritios boy or Kritian Boy belongs to the Late Archaic period of ancient Greek sculpture that is the precursor to the later classical sculptures of athletes. The Kritian boy is thus named because it is attributed to Kritios who worked together with Nesiotes (Harmodius and Aristogeiton) or their school, from around 480 BC. The statue is made of marble and is considerably smaller than life-size at 1.17 m (3 ft 10 ins).
It is on display in the archaeological museum of the Acropolis in Athens (Inv. no. 698). The statue is an excavated found object at the Athenian Acropolis. The torso was found in 1865 while excavating the foundation of the 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. This fact, in conjunction with the analysis of its style, is essential to the dating of the statue. [1]
With the Kritios Boy (Ephebos) the Greek artist has mastered a complete understanding of how the different parts of the body act as a system. The statue supports the body's weight on the left leg, while the right one is bent at the knee in a relaxing state. This stance, known as contrapposto, 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. In the Classics it belongs to the "Canon of Polyclitus" and his pupils.[2]
It set the rule for later sculptors like Praxiteles and Lysippos. But the later Ponderation is more emphasised than on the Kritios boy.
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 muscular and skeletal structure are depicted with unforced life-like accuracy, with the rib cage naturally expanded as if in the act of breathing, with a relaxed attitude and hips which are distinctly narrower. As a final forebear of the classical period, the "smile" of Archaic statues has been completely replaced by the accurate rendering of the lips and the austere expression that characterized the transitional, or Severe period from the Archaic to the Classical era. It was created in same era as the Blond Kouros's Head of the Acropolis and the group of the "Tyrannicides" Harmodius and Aristogeiton. A good example for comparison is the marble statue of an Ephebos in the Sicilian museum in Agrigento.
[edit] References
- ^ Jeffrey M. Hurwitt, "The Kritios Boy: Discovery, Reconstruction, and Date", in: American Journal of Archaeology 93 (1989), pp. 41-80. For the destruction of the Athenian Acropolis generally: Martin Steskal, "Der Zerstörungsbefund 480/79 der Athener Akropolis" Eine Fallstudie zum etablierten Chronologygerüst, Hamburg 2004.
- ^ Gisela M.A. Richter, Handbuch der griechischen Kunst, Köln-Berlin 1966 (Phaidon), p. 95; John Boardman (editor), The Oxford History of Classical Art, Oxford 1993, pp. 87-89.
