Chapter XVIII
.). Greek terracotta statues are practically non-existent; and although there are some female figures nearly life-size and a male torso of almost colossal proportions in the British Museum, also a Hermes in the Vatican, these were found at Rome, belong to the Roman period, and, though Greek in style, are really following an Etruscan fashion.
It is characteristic of the Hellenic race that from its earliest beginnings it did not employ clay for utilitarian purposes exclusively, but, influenced partly by the natural imitative instincts of man,
## partly by the anthropomorphic tendencies of the Greek religion, soon
learned the value of this easily worked material for producing images of deities, animals, and other objects. Although an equally high antiquity may be claimed for images of wood, and the word ξόανον used for a primitive cult-statue argues for the frequent use of this material, yet the history of the word πλάσσειν tells equally in the other direction. Originally used of moulding wet clay, it came by degrees to denote modelling in general, and finally its derivative πλαστική became the authorised classical word for sculpture.
Lactantius[385] speaks of Prometheus as the inventor of fictile images for religious purposes, and of figures in bronze and marble as a later development; the Latin poets[386] bear similar witness to the primitive use of clay for sculptured images, and Pliny marvels at its long-continued employment in Italy.[387] Among early Greek legends the most noteworthy is that of Butades, the potter of Sikyon, to whom the invention of modelling clay in relief was ascribed by Pliny[388] and Athenagoras. The story as told by the former was that, in order to preserve the likeness of his daughter’s lover, he moulded in terracotta the shadow of his profile which the girl drew on the wall. This account, however, is not very intelligible, and the clue is perhaps to be found in the words of Athenagoras,[389] who says that he hollowed out the lines of the face in the wall, filled in the grooves with clay, and so obtained his relief as from a mould. This primitive work of art was said to have been exhibited in the Nymphaeum at Corinth.
But this same invention was also claimed by the Samian sculptors, Theodoros and Rhoikos, who flourished about the end of the seventh century. They were pre-eminently artists in bronze, and were associated with the introduction of hollow-casting in that material into Greece; it may therefore be supposed that they actually were among the first to use clay models for statues, this being an essential preliminary to the hollow-casting process. This would not be incompatible with the invention of moulding reliefs by Butades, admitting the truth of his story. The latter was also credited with the invention of antefixal ornaments (see above, p. 98) and the introduction of a mixture of red ochre or ruddle with clay in order to give it a warmer tone.
The clay models used by sculptors as the basis of their work, which were known as προπλάσματα, were probably made on the same lines as the large works of art in clay. We read that Lysistratos of Sikyon, the brother of Lysippos, was the first to make casts of statues by means of terracotta moulds,[390] implying that it was about this time that the practice arose of multiplying the principal statues in the same manner as is now done by means of plaster casts. Some of the latter artists combined the plastic art with that of painting, and Zeuxis is said to have previously modelled in terracotta the subjects which he afterwards painted. Pasiteles, an artist who lived at Rome in the first century B.C., always first modelled his statues in terracotta, and spoke of the plastic art as the mother of statuary.[391] But it must not be supposed that as a general rule the Greek sculptors worked their marble statues from models; rather, the contrary was the case, and Pasiteles seems to have been peculiar in this respect.
The statue of Zeus, which has already been mentioned as made by Theokosmos for Megara (p. 92), appears to have been made from a clay model. It was intended to be of gold and ivory, but the breaking out of the Peloponnesian War prevented the artist from carrying out his intention, and only the head was completed, the other portions being of gypsum and terracotta. At a later period gypsum was sometimes used for sculpture, as in the case of an Apollo mentioned by Prudentius,[392] and some fragmentary remains from Cyprus in the British Museum.
The clay models were sometimes made entirely by hand, but more usually on a wooden core known as κάναβος,[393] which we may conjecture to have been formed of two rods in the form of a cross, from the use of the Latin word _crux_ in this connection.[394] It was certainly a framework, not a solid core, and must be carefully distinguished from κίνναβος, a lay-figure. Aristotle, in an interesting passage, uses the word in speaking of skeletons drawn on a wall.[395] The modelling of details was done partly with tools, partly with the finger. The use of the finger-nail for this purpose became proverbial, as in the saying attributed to Polykleitos: “When the clay has reached the finger-nail stage, then the real difficulty begins.”[396]
The chief attention of inferior artists was directed to the production of small terracotta figures, which the Greeks used as ornaments or household gods, buried in their tombs, or dedicated in their temples. They follow the same lines of development as the larger sculptures, beginning with the columnar (ξόανα) and board-like (σανίδες) types found in the primitive tombs of the Mycenaean and early Hellenic civilisation. Originally they seem to have been manufactured purely for religious purposes, but in course of time, with the gradual rationalising of religious beliefs and consequent secularisation of art-types, they lost this significance, and, while the _types_ were preserved, they were converted into _genre_ figures from daily life.
These statuettes have been found on nearly all the famous sites of antiquity from Babylonia to Carthage and Kertch; the most fruitful have been Tanagra in Boeotia, Rhodes, the Cyrenaica, Capua and Canosa in Italy, and various sites in Sicily. In Cyprus, Sardinia, and to a great extent also in Rhodes, Phoenician influences seem to have been dominant, and the earlier types bear a markedly Oriental character. For beauty and charm the palm has by general consent been given to the Tanagra statuettes of the fourth and third centuries, which were known in antiquity as κόραι or “maidens,” from the prevalence of the seated or standing types of girls in various attitudes.
The makers of these charming figures, known as κοροπάσται or κοροπλάθοι, were, like the vase-painters, quite in a subordinate position in the artistic world, and are spoken of with some contempt by Isokrates, as if it would be absurd to compare them with a Pheidias or a Zeuxis.[397] A fable of Aesop’s[398] represents Hermes being offered a statue of Zeus for a drachma and one of himself for a mere song; the low price seems to suggest that they were of terracotta, but the vendor is called an ἀγαλματοποιός, not a κοροπλάθος. Demosthenes[399] condemns the Athenians for voting for figure-head generals like makers of toys for the market; and in further illustration of the uses to which they were put, we may cite the definition of Suidas, of “those who fashion little images out of clay of all kinds of creatures, with which to trick children”; and the remark of Dio Chrysostom, who speaks of those who buy the “maiden” figures for their children. A pretty epigram in the _Anthology_[400] tells how Timareta, when about to marry, dedicated to Artemis the playthings of her childhood, including her terracotta dolls (κόρας). Lastly, Plato speaks of κόραι and images hung up in shrines.[401]
The processes employed in the manufacture of terracotta statuettes were five in number: (1) the preparation of the clay; (2) moulding; (3) retouching; (4) baking; and (5) colouring and gilding. It does not follow that all five were employed in the production of any one object; on the other hand, all processes necessary to the completion of any one object fall under one or other of these heads.
There were many varieties of clay in use among the Greeks, some being considered more suitable for one purpose, some for another. These clays vary in their characteristics in different parts of the Greek world, and this may often be an important criterion for distinguishing fabrics and detecting instances of importation. The clay of Cyprus differs much from that of Rhodes, and that of Naukratis again from either, being of a dark, coarse, and brick-like consistency. M. Pottier noted nine varieties of clay in use at Myrina in Asia Minor, and M. Martha distinguishes five in the terracottas of Athens. But these differences may be explained by variations in the length or temperature of the firing rather than in the clay.
Generally speaking, the clay of the terracottas is softer and more porous than that of the vases. It is easily scratched or marked, and does not ring a clear sound when struck; nor does it when submitted to a high temperature become so hard as the pottery.[402] Its colour ranges from deep red to a pale buff colour, and its texture and density vary greatly in different localities. It was prepared by being washed free of all granular substances, and then kneaded with the aid of water. So, as we read in Hesiod’s account of the creation of Pandora,[403] the god directed the mixing of clay and water, in order to form his new creation.
The modelling of the figures was done by hand in the case of the earlier fabrics, and of small objects such as the toys and dolls; the clay was worked up into a solid mass with the fingers, and the marks of these, left while it was wet, may still be often seen. Subsequently the use of moulds became universal, the final touches being given to the figure either with the finger or with a graving-tool, traces of which are often visible on the faces and hair of the Tanagra figures. These were invariably moulded, and the finer ones show traces of having been most carefully touched up.
There is a pretty epigram in the Anthology,[404] which seems to imply that the wheel was sometimes brought into use for modelling figures, perhaps for the first rough outlining. A statuette of Hermes is supposed to say:
The rolling circle of the potter’s wheel Me, Hermes, formed, of clay from head to heel. Mud-made, I lie not: the poor potter’s art, Stranger! was ever pleasant to my heart. (MACGREGOR.)
The process of moulding gave scope for reducing the “walls” of the figure to the smallest possible thickness, thereby avoiding the danger of shrinkage in the baking; it also rendered them extremely light, and allowed of great accuracy in detail. A model (πρότυπος) was made in terracotta with modelling-tools, from which the mould (τύπος) was taken, also in terracotta,
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PLATE V
[Illustration:
MOULDS FOR TERRACOTTA FIGURES, WITH CASTS FROM THE MOULDS. 2, 3. ARCHAIC, FROM RHODES; 1, 4. ARCHAISTIC, FROM TARENTUM (BRITISH MUSEUM). ]
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usually in two pieces, which were then baked to a considerable hardness. From this mould the figure was made by smearing it with layers of clay until a sufficient thickness was reached, leaving the figure hollow. The back was made separately, either from a mould or by hand, and then fitted carefully on to the front, the join being concealed by a layer of wet clay. The base was usually left open, and a vent-hole was left at the back which may have served a double purpose—first to allow the clay to contract without cracking, and subsequently in some cases for the suspension of the completed figure.
The heads and arms were usually moulded separately and attached afterwards, and altogether the average number of moulds employed—say for a Tanagra figure—was four or five. M. Pottier[405] quotes an instance of an Eros from Myrina which is made up of no less than fourteen; yet it is not a specially complicated figure.
Greek moulds, either for statuettes or reliefs, are somewhat rare; but the British Museum contains a fair number from Tarentum of all kinds (see Plate V.).[406] Those that we possess are mostly for small objects, such as figures of animals; but in the Museum collection there are several moulds for reliefs, as well as for vases of the later class with reliefs (see Chapters XI., XXII.), such as the Calenian phialae with embossed designs.[407] Moulds employed for making stamps of various kinds are also in existence; at Naukratis Mr. Petrie found several circular “cake-stamps” with various designs. Of the moulds used by forgers or others for copying coins we have already spoken (p. 106).[408]
The shrinkage of the clay as it dried afterwards permitted the figure to be withdrawn easily from the mould, and it was then ready for the necessary retouching. It is obvious from a glance at any collection of terracottas that there is a great similarity between the various representatives of any one type, and that actual or virtual repetitions are by no means uncommon. This was, of course, due to the fact that only a limited number of moulds were used, corresponding to the different types. At the same time there are in almost all cases minute differences which redeem them from a charge of monotony, and these were obtained in various ways: by varying the pose of the head or attaching the arms in different positions; by retouching before the baking; or by the addition of attributes and colouring. As it has been neatly put by M. Pottier,[409] “All the Tanagra figures are sisters, but few of them are twins.” But retouching is not invariable, and is, in fact, confined to the finer specimens, such as those of Tanagra. In the statuettes from the Cyrenaica and Southern Italy it is the exception. The difference which it effected may be well observed by comparing two statuettes of Eros in the British Museum from Myrina (C 535–36), which are from the same mould. They are identical in style and type, yet one is far superior to the other in artistic merit, just because of the greater finish of detail.
The process of baking required great care and attention; for if no allowance was made for the evaporation of moisture, or if too great a degree of temperature was reached, the result was bound to be disastrous. It does not appear that a very high temperature was reached, especially as compared with the pottery. The clay was further insured against too rapid drying by preliminary exposure to the air. A story told by Plutarch[410] of the fate which befell the chariot cast for the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol illustrates the possibility of disasters either from accident or carelessness. The clay swelled up to such a size and hardness that it could only be extracted by pulling the kiln to pieces.
The colouring of statuettes may be considered a fairly universal practice, although not always suggested by their present appearance. The earlier archaic specimens were not always, or only roughly, coloured, and those of the Roman period seem to have been often left plain; but otherwise it is the general rule. The surface on which the colours were applied was formed by a white slip or _engobe_ of a creamy colour and consistency, with which the whole figure (except the back) was coated. This when dry becomes very flaky, and is liable to drop off, carrying the colours with it; most statuettes retain at least traces of this coating.
The method of painting is that known as _in tempera_, the pigments being opaque, mixed with some stiffening medium. The colouring was as a rule conventional, aiming at giving the figure a pleasing appearance, without any particular regard to nature. It was applied after the firing, as in that process the colours would have been liable to injury. The tints are what are known as body-colours, without any attempts at shading, and those usually employed are red, blue, yellow, and black, the white slip forming a ground throughout, and left untouched over the nude parts and often over the drapery; of these the favourites, especially for drapery, were blue and red, as also we learn from Lucian.[411] Pollux says it was a speciality of the κοροπλάθοι to colour their figures yellow, or with a golden tint.[412] The reds range in shade from scarlet to rose-colour and purple. At all times there was a tendency to treat the drapery in masses of colour, and this we see especially in the Tanagra figures, in which the chiton is almost invariably blue, the himation rose-pink. At a later date it became more customary to leave the drapery white, with borders and stripes only of colour. Black was only used for details of features, such as the eyes; green is very rare; and yellow was employed (in a deep brownish shade) for the hair, and also for jewellery, etc. The use of gilding is at all times rare in the statuettes; but some good examples are known—as, for instance, two archaic statuettes from the Polledrara tomb, and a head of Zeus, all in the British Museum.[413] Imitation jewellery in terracotta gilt is not at all uncommon. On many of the earlier figures from Cyprus the drapery is indicated by stripes of red and yellow laid directly on the clay, while animals are usually decorated with stripes of red and black; the method employed is the same as on the contemporary vases (p. 253). Similarly, in the terracottas of the Mycenaean and Geometrical periods, such as those from Boeotia, the technique of the painted vases is closely followed, and the same decorative patterns are employed.
The use of an enamelled glaze first appears at Athens in the fourth century, and it is also occasionally found at Tanagra. The colour is uniformly a dull ashen-grey. A few examples are also known from the Cyrenaica, but it was in Sicily that the practice found most favour. There we find attempts to reproduce the colouring of the flesh by an enamel coating varying in hue from rose-pink to orange, and also grey and purple tints.
It is probable that the colours employed for painting terracottas were made from the same earths, though of a coarser kind, as the ware itself. Some information on the subject may be derived from Theophrastos, Vitruvius, and Dioskorides.[414] For white the artist used a white earth, such as Melos produces, and white lead; it is also said to have been produced from the burnt lees of wine, and from ivory. The reds were composed of a red earth, probably ochre from Sinope, and vermilion or _minium_. Yellow was obtained from Skyros and Lydia; and a yellow ochre was obtained by burning a red earth.[415] The Egyptian _smalto_ or cobalt served for blue, and a copper solution prepared with alkali and silica was also employed. Copper green was obtained from many places, and mixed with white or black.
* * * * *
This may be a convenient point at which to speak of a class of vases which come rather under the heading of terracottas than that of painted pottery. They are found at Calvi, Canosa, Cumae, and other places in Southern Italy, and belong to the Hellenistic period, forming a parallel development to the glazed wares with reliefs of which we shall speak later (p. 497 ff.). They combine in a marked degree the characteristics of the vase and the statuette, some being vases with moulded reliefs or small figures in the round attached in different places, others again actual figures or colossal heads modelled in vase form by the addition of mouth, handle, and base (see Plate VI.). They are usually of considerable—sometimes gigantic—size, and do not appear to have served any practical purpose; some, indeed, are only imitation vases with false bottoms. It is reasonable to suppose that they were manufactured for sepulchral purposes only, like the large painted kraters and amphorae of Apulia (p. 476).
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PLATE VI
[Illustration: TERRACOTTA VASES FROM SOUTHERN ITALY (BRITISH MUSEUM).]
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Like the statuettes, they are covered throughout with a white slip laid directly on the unglazed clay, and this is often richly coloured _in tempera_. Some of the heads have the hair covered with intersecting pink lines to imitate a net, and the figures attached to them are usually coloured in the manner of the statuettes, with blue and pink draperies. There are some, however, in which the encaustic or a similar process seems to have been employed[416]; one example, in the British Museum (D 185, shown on Plate VI.), has a Hippocamp painted on either side in white and colours outlined with black, the wings being elaborately rendered in blue, brown, yellow, and pink. The same process is employed for a large cover of a vase in the British Museum from Sicily (D 1), but the figures are now nearly obliterated.
The prevailing shape of these vases is that conventionally known as the _askos_, with spherical body, over which passes a flat handle and three mouths on the top; the latter are often covered in and figures placed upon them. On the front and back of these vases _appliqué_ masks of Medusa or figures in relief are usually placed, flanked by the fore-parts of galloping horses. Others take the form of a large jug or bowl with _appliqué_ ornaments.
It now remains to consider the small but interesting class of terracotta reliefs, which are nearly all of the late archaic period, dating from the beginning of the fifth century. Later reliefs are nearly all architectural in character, and have already been described, as have those which were made for the decoration of tombs and sarcophagi. But the purpose for which the reliefs were made, of which we are about to speak, is not so certain. One group appears from the character of the subjects to be votive, and they may possibly have been let into the walls of temples or shrines; but the others are mostly known to have been found in tombs. The former group are found at Athens and at Locri in Southern Italy; the latter at Melos and other sites round the Aegean Sea, being usually known as “Melian” reliefs.
The character of the work of these Melian reliefs (see Plate VII.) is exceedingly delicate and refined; the subjects are mainly mythological, and include the slaying of Medusa by Perseus and of the Chimaera by Bellerophon, Helle on the ram, Peleus seizing Thetis, Eos carrying off Kephalos, and the death of Aktaeon. Three classes have been distinguished,[417] of which the peculiarly Melian type has the figures cut out, without background; in the second only the outer contours are cut round, and the third consists of rectangular plaques.
Brunn[418] considers that they served a definite architectural purpose, being intended to cover a field enclosed by borders, and that the holes with which they are pierced show that they were used either for suspension or attachment. But his reasons for regarding them as an archaistic survival have not been generally accepted.
The Locrian type of relief takes the form of a square plaque.[419] They are easily recognised by the rough micaceous character of the clay, and by their subjects, which mostly relate to the myth and cult of Persephone. They were probably dedicated in one of her shrines, as were those found on the Acropolis at Athens to Athena. All these reliefs seem to have been impressed in moulds, not modelled by hand, as many of them exist in duplicate. Those from Greece are sometimes coloured.
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PLATE VII
[Illustration:
TERRACOTTA “MELIAN” RELIEFS, ARCHAIC PERIOD (BRIT. MUS.). ]
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Many little figures in the shape of animals and other objects, such as goats, pigs, pigeons, tortoises, chariots or boats, boys or apes riding on animals, women making bread, and similar subjects, together with jointed dolls or νευρόσπαστα, were evidently used as children’s toys. They have been found deposited with the bodies of children in the tombs of Melos, Rhodes, and Athens. In Mr. Biliotti’s excavations at Kameiros in Rhodes in 1863, one child’s tomb was found containing two of the “Melian” reliefs, small vases of glass and black-glazed ware, a terracotta basket of fruit, and a sea-shell; in another were a bird, two dolls, a child in a cradle, two grotesque figures, a woman playing a tambourine, and two other terracotta figures.
The terracotta dolls were cast in a mould like the ordinary figures, but the bodies, legs, and arms are formed of separate pieces pierced with holes, so that they might be joined and moved with strings, like the modern marionettes; hence their name of νευρόσπαστα, “drawn by wires.” They all represent girls, and sometimes dancers with castanets in their hands; they are coloured in the usual manner, and date from various periods between 500 and 200 B.C. Allusion is sometimes made to these figures in the Greek writers—as, for instance, by Xenophon, who in his _Symposium_[420] introduces Socrates inquiring of an exhibitor of these puppets what he chiefly relies on in the world. “A great number of fools,” he replies, “for such are those who support me by the pleasure they take in my performances.” Aristotle[421] mentions dolls that moved their limbs and winked their eyes like marionettes, but this can hardly refer to terracotta figures.[422]
* * * * *
It would require too much space to enumerate all the =subjects= represented in the terracotta statuettes. But it may be found convenient to give an outline of the subjects and principal types adopted at different periods.[423] Roughly speaking, the range of subjects may be divided into seven groups: (1) figures of deities; (2) mythological subjects; (3) scenes from daily life; (4) imitations of works of art; (5) caricatures; (6) masks; (7) animals. Among the figures of the Olympian deities we find most commonly Demeter, Aphrodite, and Artemis; Hephaistos, Ares, and Hestia are seldom if ever represented; Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, and even Athena are also very rare. Of the inferior deities, Dionysos, Persephone, Eros, and Nike (Victory) are most frequently found, as well as Satyrs and similar personages. Nor is it always easy to ascertain definitely whether a figure is or is not intended to be mythological in significance.
This question is, in fact, closely bound up with that of the Uses for which the statuettes were made, as on such a purpose their interpretation in a mythological or human sense may largely depend. The uncertainty of identification arises from the practice which obtained of adhering closely to certain recognised _types_, which occur repeatedly at all periods. There is a strong probability that a clear distinction was not recognised by the Greek κοροπλάσται, but that the same type of figure might be used either for a votive offering to a deity, or as a mere ornament or article of tomb-furniture. And we are further met with the fact that a type which was mythological at one period ceases to be so at another, or at any rate is transformed by some slight alteration of details or omission of an attribute. Thus the seated figure of an Earth-goddess or Nursing-mother of a Rhodian or Cypriote tomb becomes the nurse and child of the fourth century at Tanagra, while the archaic standing type of a Persephone holding a flower requires little but the omission of her special head-dress to transform her into the girl-type of the Hellenistic age.
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PLATE VIII
[Illustration:
ARCHAIC GREEK TERRACOTTAS (BRITISH MUSEUM). 1. MAN WITH RAM (RHODES); 2. PERSEPHONE (SICILY); 3. RHODES; 4. DOLL (ATHENS). ]
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The earliest beginnings of the statuette proper show, as might be expected in primitive Greek art, a very limited range of ideas. As in marble, bronze, and wood, so also in clay, the type of the female deity reigns supreme. The primitive Hellenic type of goddess adopts two forms, both derived from an original in wood, the board-form or σανίς, and the column-form (κίων or ξόανον), each of which finds parallels in sculpture. The limbs are either completely wanting or of the most rudimentary description, the figure terminating below in a spreading base. Both these types are found in Rhodes, but on the mainland of Greece the columnar form is confined to the Mycenaean period. In the succeeding “Geometrical” age the board-like types rose into popularity at Athens and Tegea, and above all in Boeotia. Two varieties are found, a standing and a sitting type, and they are usually painted in the manner of the local vases (see p. 290). The later examples show a great advance in modelling, especially in the heads. The columnar form exhibits its development best in the terracottas of the Graeco-Phoenician period from Cyprus.
The standing and sitting goddess (Plate VIII.) are the two principal types in archaic Greek art, and are remarkable for their wide distribution and universal popularity. The name of the goddess may vary with the locality, but the types remain almost identical, and the attributes show little variation.
Another interesting archaic type is the so-called funeral mask or bust (Plate VIII.), of which the best examples have come from Rhodes. Being almost exclusively feminine, we must suppose that they ceased to represent the image of the dead person, as in Egypt and primitive Greece, and became images of the Chthonian goddess, Demeter or Persephone, represented under the form of a bust rising out of the earth.[424] Thus they played in the tombs the rôle of protection against evil influences, like the mask of Demeter Kidaria, worn by the priest at Pheneus in Arcadia on certain occasions.[425] Male masks are occasionally found, representing the Chthonian Dionysos. They are very rare after the fifth century.
The purely divine and mythological types in the archaic period are very few in number. Of the Olympian deities few are represented, except in the conventional hieratic types, hardly to be differentiated one from another. But on certain sites are found representations of nature-goddesses, such as the Earth-mother with a child in her lap (Gaia Kourotrophos), or a nude goddess within a shrine, who may be a combination of Astarte and Aphrodite. These types are of Oriental origin, and are found in Cyprus, Rhodes, Naukratis, and Sardinia. They may represent offerings made after child-birth. Among the individualised deities we may point to figures of Hermes Kriophoros (from Rhodes and Sicily),[426] of Herakles,[427] or of the local nymph Kyrene, who appears holding the silphium-plant in a terracotta from Carthage.[428]
Among miscellaneous feminine types are the _hydrophoros_ or water-carrier, the woman riding on a mule, horse, or other animal, the musician, and the mother nursing a child. Some of these have their mythological counterparts, as in the Aphrodite riding on a goose, or the Earth-mother, already mentioned. Male types are curiously rare, the athletic influences, which are so strongly manifest in early Greek sculpture, not affecting terracottas. The most popular is that of the horseman, particularly in Cyprus. These figures are usually of a rude and primitive kind, especially in Cyprus and at Halikarnassos. The examples from Greece Proper show a more developed archaism, and are found at Athens and in Boeotia. Sometimes instead of a horse the man rides on a swan, mule, or tortoise.
Reclining male figures are sometimes characterised as Herakles or a Satyr; but this type is most fully developed at Tarentum, in numerous terracottas representing the well-known subject of the Sepulchral Banquet, associated with a cult of the Chthonian deities.[429] There are also various types of grotesque figures, usually in a squatting or crouching attitude; some assume the form of a Satyr, and others are obviously derived from the Egyptian figures of Ptah-Socharis, with bent knees and protruding stomach.
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PLATE IX
[Illustration:
GREEK TERRACOTTAS OF HELLENISTIC PERIOD (BRITISH MUSEUM). 1, 4, TANAGRA; 2, 3, SOUTHERN ITALY. ]
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In the fine and later periods, from the end of the fifth century onwards, the standing or seated feminine figures are still by far the most prominent. The change, however, which has taken place, from mythological to _genre_, has been described as an evolution rather than a revolution, brought about by artistic, not religious, considerations. The possible varieties of the feminine standing types may be best studied in the Tanagra figures (Plate IX.), which include women or girls in every variety of pose or attitude. In most cases the arms are more or less concealed by the himation, which is drawn closely across the figure; in others a fan, mirror, wreath, or mask is held in one hand, the other drawing the edges of the drapery together. Some lean on a column or are seated on a rock; others play with a bird or perform their toilet. Imitations of the Tanagra figures, but vastly inferior in merit, subsequently became popular all over the Greek world; they are found at Myrina in Asia Minor, in Cyprus, the Cyrenaica, and many parts of Southern Italy.
Among miscellaneous types of the Hellenistic period, many of the archaic ones already mentioned retain their popularity. Others appear for the first time, and are more in accordance with the spirit of the age, such as girls dancing, playing with knucklebones, or carrying one another pick-a-back. There is a beautiful group of two knucklebone-players from Capua in the British Museum (D 161). The dancing type is found widely distributed.
Figures of goddesses and mythological subjects are very rare at Tanagra, but fairly common on other sites, as at Myrina and Naukratis. Archaistic imitations of the archaic seated and standing goddesses are often found in the Cyrenaica and Southern Italy; but the Chthonian deities appear but rarely among the types of more advanced style. As in sculpture and vase-paintings, Aphrodite now becomes the most prominent among the feminine deities, and some of the later statuettes appear to be reproductions of well-known works of art, the Cnidian Aphrodite, the Anadyomene, or the crouching type of Aphrodite at the bath. Artemis and Athena are occasionally found, but Nike (Victory) is really the most popular figure after Aphrodite. She, however, plays little more than the part of a female Eros, a counterpart to whom the Hellenic artist felt to be a necessity. Formerly these winged female types were styled Psyche, but this was a conception of post-Hellenistic origin.
Among the male deities the conditions remain much as before. Zeus appears for the first time, and was especially popular at Smyrna, and Sarapis and Asklepios are also occasionally found. In Naukratis the influence of the Egyptian religion made itself felt in the production of numerous figures of Bes, Harpocrates, and the like. Hermes is not found so often as might have been expected, though there is a notable instance in the British Museum (C 406) of a caricature of the famous statue by Praxiteles, where a Satyr takes his place. Dionysos is only met with occasionally, as are Satyrs and Maenads; but masks of a Bacchic character are very common in Italy.
The one deity who really seems to have caught the popular taste is Eros, although at the time when most of the Tanagra statuettes were produced this popularity was hardly assured. The types of Eros standing, seated, flying, or riding on animals are innumerable and found all over the Greek world. The best examples come from Eretria in Euboea, but Myrina and Sicily have also produced large numbers. They vary from almost Praxitelean conceptions, like the Flying Eros from Eretria in the British Museum (C 199), to the veritable Pompeian _amoretti_ from the same site and from Myrina. The riding types of Eros (on a horse, dog, swan, or dolphin) are chiefly found in the Cyrenaica or Southern Italy. In many cases the Eros types are used for ordinary unwinged boys.
Among the human male types a new feature is the introduction of the athlete, as he appears in many boyish figures from Tanagra, and later as a boxer among the somewhat coarse conceptions of the Roman period. Some years ago a remarkable copy of the Diadumenos of Polykleitos in terracotta was found in Asia Minor.[430]
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In the tombs of the Aegean Islands, Italy, and elsewhere, a class of ware has sometimes been found quite distinct from the ordinary fictile pottery and resembling the porcelain or enamelled ware of the Egyptians and Babylonians, such as the _ushabtiu_, found in the tombs of the former, and the enamelled bricks of the latter. For the most part they must be regarded as importations, of foreign manufacture, the medium of commerce being the Phoenicians, who not only introduced Egyptian objects of art, but themselves endeavoured to imitate them. Hence we must distinguish some as of Egyptian origin, others as made by the Phoenicians. As might be expected, they are most often found where Phoenician influence was strong, as in Rhodes and Sardinia. Egyptian perfume-vases have been found in the Polledrara tomb at Vulci (see
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