Kritios (, ) was an

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

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 Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

. He was the teacher of Myron. With Nesiotes (Νησιώτης,) Kritios made the replacement of the Tyrannicides ("Tyrant-killers") groupThe "Tyrant-killers" (Τυραννοκτόνοι),

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

, the heroic lovers who slew the tyrant

Hipparchus Hipparchus (; , ; BC) was a Ancient Greek astronomy, Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equinoxes. Hippar ...

. by Antenor, which had been carried off by the Persians in the first stage of the

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

. The new group stood in the Agora of Athens and its composition is known from Roman copies. With Nesiotes Kritios made other statues, of bronze, dedicated on the

Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens ...

, of which only their inscribed bases remain to give testament. The head of a marble statue found on the Acropolis so much resembles the copies of one of the Tyrannicides – Harmodius – that it has been called the '' Kritios Boy'' (now in the Acropolis Museum). Its easy naturalism and relaxed '' contrapposto'' set it apart from the Late Archaic conventional '' kouroi'' that preceded it. It was re-discovered too late (1865) to have had an effect on

Neoclassical sculpture Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclass ...

, as it would have done if it had been known a century earlier.

References

The "Tyrant-killers" (Τυραννοκτόνοι), Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the heroic lovers who slew the tyrant

External links

Acropolis sculptures: The Kritios Boy
Kritios in context. * ttp://daphne.palomar.edu/mhudelson/WorksofArt/05Greek/4169.html The Calf-Bearer and the Kritian Boy at the dig site on the Acropolis, 1865 * {{Authority control 5th-century BC Greek sculptors Ancient Athenian sculptors

See also

References

External links