To What Extent Do You Think Was a Revolutionary Sculptor Essay Example for Free

To What Extent Do You Think Was a Revolutionary Sculptor Essay Kritios was an Athenian sculptor, whose style and technique during the late archaic period helped revolutionize the archaic period into the Classical period. He has two main statutes that I am going to examine the first of which being the Kritios boy. Also referred to as â€Å"the first beautiful nude art† it is very important as it is a precursor to the later classical sculptures. It depicts a young boy in an idea form (so sculpted in the nude if they where in the ideal form) and is possibly a reflection of the Athenian cultural obsession with Pederasty. Yet it is more important in the sense that it smashes the Korous pose. The Kritios boy is so important as Kritios has mastered a complete understanding of how the different parts of the body act together, the statue supports the weight on the left leg meaning that the right one is bent at the knee and relaxed, and forces a chain of events as the pelvis is pushed diagonally upwards on the left side this causes the right buttock to relax and the spine to be placed in an â€Å"S† shaped curve causing the shoulder line to dip left to counteract the action of the pelvis. his stance is referred to as contrapposto, and the Kritios boy is one of the earliest examples of it mastered. (One of the greatest examples of contrapposto in history was during the neoclassical period ‘David† by Michelangelo, 1504) but this could not have been achieved without Kritios. The kritios boy also shows a number of other innovations that distinguish it from any of the Archaic Kouroi or anythi ng from the Archaic period. The muscular and skeletal structure are depicted with an unforced life-like accuracy as well as having the rib cage naturally expanded. Almost as if he is breathing in. the statue’s hips are relaxed and another reason why it is revolutionary in the break though into the classical period is the â€Å"smile† of the archaic statues, has been changed to accurate lips and the face is completely emotionless. The second Kritios statue I am going to look at was not just made by him, He and Nesiotes combined their sculptures of Aristogeiton and Harmodius to make ‘The Tyrannicides’ (477-476BC). These statues were a replica of the climax of the story about the two men who killed the Tyrant Of Athens. The Tyrannicides story is told through their stances and the objects they were holding. Aristogeiton (Eromenos); the statue sculpted by Kritios was the older man and the one with all the experience and wisdom who has a beard. He managed to show this by the way Aristogeiton was standing with one leg in front of the other at a defence angle. His arm flat out holding a knife to show his weapon. That he used to stab Hippias to death, some drapery over his arm is shown, and it appears to be being used as some kind of defense, this illustrates that he is experienced. Once again Kritos has used details and the realism to help push sculptor and realism forward with Aristogeiton’s muscles, stance, facial features. As well as beard that course stands out (again illustrating how he is wise). Both statues have frontal emphasis with both having a leg in front and their attacking arms pointing out to the front. The use of frontal emphasis almost puts you in Hipparchus’ shoes because it is what he would have seen when he was getting attacked. Making this a very threatening and violent image. Aristogeiton’s partner Harmodius was sculpted by Nesiotes who followed Kritios’ example and decided to base Hamodius on the opposite of Aristogeiton and make him extremely inexperienced and reckless. Because of his youth, he lacked the experience that Aristogeiton had, therefore his pose was very reckless and he is open to be attacked as his arm in the air exposing the rest of his body,. These men were seen as heroes for the way they killed the King who was more of a tyrant, which opened up Athenian democracy. And they have been immortalized and shown as very strong powerful figures. Again the statues are both very realistic in the way all the joints and body work together (the fact more weight is on one left leg this causes the pelvises to rise ect) In conclusion I feel that Kritios was a revolutionary sculptor as he mastered how a human figure standing with most of it’s weight on one foot causes a compelete change throughout the body as the human form does causing his statues to look allot more realist. This caused a massive step forward in the art and ability to create lifelike sculptures that completely makes the stiff kouroi of the archaic period completely obsolete.