of modelling and grandeur of style this little figure, which was only about 14 inches high when perfect, has the effect of a much larger statue, and it is a real master piece of Greek plastic art.[1] In the neighbourhood of Smyrna and Ephesus a large number of caricature figures have been exhumed, some of which are modelled with a wonderful feeling for humour.[2] These strange figures have attenuated limbs, large heads, flapping ears, and goggle eyes. Some play on musical instruments; others represent actors; and one in the De Branteghem collec tion is a caricature of a discobolus in almost the attitude of Myron's celebrated statue.
Cyrenaic statuettes.A very different class of statuettes has recently come to light in the Cyrenaica, on the northern coast of Africa. Many of these are nude female dancers wearing an elaborate stephanos-like head-dress. They are realistic in modelling and very ungraceful in pose,—a striking contrast to the exquisite taste of the Tanagra and most of the Asia Minor figures. Recent excavations in the tombs of Corinth have produced a large number of fine terra cottas, ranging in date over a very long period. Tarentine busts.Another and artistically very perfect class of figures is being dug up from among the tombs of Tarentum. Some of these belong to the finest period of Greek art, probably about 400 B.C., and others are even earlier. Many are not statuettes, but merely small busts of heroic style, and of the highest sculpturesque beauty. They are certainly not portraits, and do not appear to repre sent deities. It has been suggested that they are ideal ized representations of ancestors, whose commemoration, in some places, formed an important cult; but their real meaning must for the present remain uncertain. Many thousand votive figures and reliefs in clay have been found within the temeni of the temples of the Chthonian deities at Tarentum and elsewhere. It seems to have been customary for the priests periodically to clear out of the temples the broken or too numerous offerings which were then buried within the enclosure; whole series arranged chronologically in groups have been discovered buried in separate holes.
Terra-cotta jewellery.In addition to statuettes and reliefs, terra-cotta was used by the Greeks for various minor ornamental pur poses. Delicately moulded necklaces and pendants for ears were stamped out in clay and then thickly covered with gold leaf; this produced a very rich effect at a small cost; many fine examples are preserved in the Louvre. Children's toys, such as miniature horses and chariots, and dolls with movable limbs of terra-cotta fastened with wooden pegs, occur in many tombs.
Use in Greek architecture.On a larger scale terra-cotta was adapted by the Greeks to important architectural ornamentation. Many fine examples have been found at Olympia and among the ruined temples of Selinus. In some cases the main cornices of the building were simply blocked out square in stone, and then covered with moulded plaques of terra cotta, carefully formed to fit on and round the angles of the block. The large cymatium which forms the upper member of the cornice is curved upwards, so as to prevent the rain water from dripping all along the edge; and at intervals it is pierced by ornamental clay pipes, which project like a mediaeval gargoyle. In some examples from Selinus the cymatium is pierced with a beautiful open pattern of lotus leaf (see fig. 5). The greatest care was taken in fitting these applied mouldings where each plaque joined the next, and especially in making them fit closely on to the stone blocks, in which rebates were cut to receive each plaque. The whole surface of the terra-cotta is covered with elaborate painted orna ments of great beauty, in ochre colours applied on a white ground, as in the case of the statuettes. These beautiful temple decorations are well illustrated by Dörpfeld and others in Die Verwendung von Terra-cotten, Berlin, 1881.
Fig. 5.—Cornice enrichments of painted terra-cotta from Selinus. This section shows the careful way in which the terra-cotta is fitted on to the stone; the colours are red and brown ochre and cream-white.
Though no complete examples of terra-cotta statuary now exist, it is certain that the Greeks produced it on a large scale and of the highest class of workmanship. Pliny (H.N., xxxv. 36) mentions that certain statues of Hercules Musagetes and the Nine Muses were "opera figlina," executed by the painter Zeuxis. These were brought from Athens by M. Fulvius Nobilior, and placed in the temple of Hercules Musagetes, which adjoined the Porticus Octaviæ in the Campus Martius of Rome. Other and earlier examples of clay statues are mentioned by Pausanias.
Etruscan.Among the Etruscans the use of clay for important sculpture was very frequent, painted terra-cotta or bronze almost excluding marble and stone. An important example was the clay quadriga on the pediment of the temple of Capitoline Jupiter, which, according to one legend, was brought from Veii by Tarquinius Superbus. This existed till the destruction of the temple by fire in 83 B.C., and was considered one of the seven precious relics on which the safety of the Roman state depended. The great statue of Jupiter in the central cella of this triple temple was also of terra-cotta, and was said to be the work of an Etruscan sculptor from Fregenae. Vitruvius mentions "signa fictilia" as being specially Etruscan. Many other statues in the early temples of Rome were made of the same material. Among the existing specimens of Etruscan terra-cotta the chief are large sarcophagi, with recumbent portrait effigies of the deceased on the top, the whole being of clay, decorated with painting. Fine examples exist in the Louvre and the British Museum; a good specimen from the latter collection is figured in vol. viii., plate VIII. The Museo Gregoriano in the Vatican possesses some very beautiful friezes of a later date about the 4th century B.C. when native Etruscan art had been replaced by that of Greece. These friezes are very rich and elaborate, with heads and scroll foliage in very salient relief. Some of them have at intervals cleverly moulded heads of satyrs, painted a brilliant crimson.[3]
Magna Græcian.Another very elaborate application of terra-cotta is shown in the numerous large asci, covered with statuettes, which are found in the tombs of Canosa (Canusium), Cales, and
- ↑ See Journ. of Hellenic Studies, vol. vi., 1886, p. 243.
- ↑ The British Museum possesses some fine caricatures of actors from Canino, very skilfully modelled and of a pecxiliar fabrique.
- ↑ The use of this strongly glowing red is almost peculiar to Hellenic Italy; the other colours used there were much the same as those of Greece itself. The same magnificent crimson often occurs on œnochoæ, moulded into the form of satyrs' heads, which are found in the tombs of Magna Græcia.
