Kritios Boy, Ancient marble sculpture at Acropolis Museum, Greece
The Kritios Boy is a Parian marble statue of a nude adolescent, now 1.167 m tall and mounted with supports replacing the missing feet. Both forearms and the lower legs are lost, and the arms are broken off below the shoulders, leaving short stumps. The smooth torso shows a navel and carved genitalia, with a small rectangular peg in the outer right thigh; the surface is off-white with faint yellowish mottling.
Archaeologists found this sculpture in 1865 southeast of the Parthenon in fragments and discovered the head 23 years later at the same excavation site. The pieces were joined and now show a work from around 480 BC.
The name links the statue to Kritios, the sculptor of the Tyrannicides group, on the strength of the head's resemblance to his Harmodios; the eyes were once inlaid, as a bronzeworker would do. Some scholars suggest the figure is Theseus rather than an anonymous youth. Traces of red-brown colour remain in the hair.
The museum presents the sculpture in a room with several similar works, allowing comparison of different ways to depict male figures. Good lighting makes it possible to see details such as surface treatment and muscle definition.
The hip stands slightly higher on one side than the other, an innovation that makes the human body at rest look more natural. This method later spread throughout Greek and Roman sculpture.
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