Kritios Boy sculpture

By Joey Pascoulis

The Kritios boy belongs to the

Late Archaic period Believed to be an athlete he statue is made of marble

and is considerably smaller than life-size at 1.17 m (3 ft 10 ins)

The teacher of Myron (Kritios) made this sculpture, Myron was a very good sculpture so he clearly learnt from the best

Facts

excavated in 1866 on the Acropolis of Athens,

among the "Perserschutt", 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, 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

Where it was found

With the Kritios Boy the Greek artist has

mastered a complete understanding of how the different parts of the body act as a system. The statue supports its body on one leg, the left, while the right one is bent at the knee in a relaxing state

Kritios was an Athenian sculptor working in the early 5th century BCE, whose work is on the cusp of the Late Archaic and the Severe style of Early Classicism in Attica. He was the teacher of Myron

About the sculptor Kritios

Whether or not Kritios was the innovator, he has

clearly differentiated this sculpture from the original Kouros sculptures

The sculpture does not follow the Kouros geometrical body shape and actually is a very realistic representation of a human

It does not follow the general signs of a kouros sculpture eg almond eyes, beaded hair etc…

Unlike other sculptures of its time, the artist has realistically sculpted how the body would look and what muscles would contract and relax in this stance

How is it different?

‘When sculpting a free-standing statue of a

human male nude in the 5th century BC, the main priority was to create as lifelike an image as possible.’ To what extent do you disagree with this statement? Give the reasons for your views and support them with details from five examples. You might include discussion of: • the Kritios Boy • the Tyrannicides • the Riace Warriors • Myron’s Diskobolos • Polykleitos’ Doryphoros.

Past exam question(essay)