Critius

Critius , or Kritios , and Nesiotes , fl. 5th cent. BC, Greek sculptors, in the time of the Persian Wars. They made statues of the Tyrannicides, Harmodius and Aristogiton, who slew the tyrant Hipparchus. The works replaced a group by Antenor taken from Athens by Xerxes and later returned. The originals have disappeared, but a number of Roman reproductions survive. The most complete marble copies are those in the national museum at Naples. Critius, probably a pupil of Antenor, established a school of sculpture at Athens.

Critius. Greek sculptor, active in Athens in the early 5th century bc. He worked in collaboration with another sculptor called Nesiotes, their chief work being the bronze Tyrannicides, erected in 477 bc, to replace the group by Antenor that had been taken as booty after the Persian sack of Athens in 480. The group by Critius and Nesiotes is lost, but Roman copies of it survive (the most complete is in the Archaeological Museum, Naples). Other works have been attributed to Critius, including a beautiful marble kouros known as ‘The Critius Boy’ in the Acropolis Museum, Athens. This and the Tyrannicides group are regarded as marking the beginning of the Severe (or early classical) style in Greek sculpture.