The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

• Helen Nagy –

Figure 54.23 Double enthroned females holding patera. From the Vignaccia Sanctuary at Cerveteri.

Inv. No. 8–2552. Photo: author. Courtesy of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology,

University of California, Berkeley.

CONCLUSION

The aim of this brief chapter has been to highlight some practices of Etruscan terracotta
production in order to demonstrate the possibilities of creating variety within existing
types. To do this, I have selected two sites out of the many and a few types out of the
hundreds or more at each site. The number of terracotta fi gures from Etruria is staggering,
as are the problems faced by the scholar attempting to organize and interpret them.

NOTES

1 The group of statuettes from Tell Asmar in the collection of the Oriental Institute at the
University of Chicago is many students’ fi rst encounter with this phenomenon. ( Janson
2007: 26, fi g. 2.6.). A good source on votive religion in the Mediterranean is Van Straten
1981.
2 Nagy 1994: 213–214, 220–221, notes 22, 23.
3 Cabinet 32 of the Veii Storeroom at the Villa Giulia in Rome displays series of fi gurines
from the Campetti sanctuary. Numerous examples are from a single mold. For instance: male
warriors and musicians, Vagnetti 1971: types J2, J3, J5, J7, J8.
4 Haynes 2000: 205–211, fi g. 170.
5 Muller 2010: 100–103, on technique, specifi cally of Tanagras, but applies to most terracotta
production. Vagnetti 1971: 157–165. Hand modeled fi gurines are far less frequent and
usually not reproduced.
6 Often the head is on a “stem” as in Fig. 54.6, but some have only a stub. The join between
the body and the neck was usually masked by a thin layer of clay. Nagy 1988: 7.
7 The arm was removed from Fig. 54.5a for conservation. The join was masked by the drapery
and a thin layer of clay.
8 For example, Fig. 54.7a, Hearst Museum 8–2824. Andrén 1955–56: 213–217; Briguet
1974: 247–252.
9 Veii: the standing musician type Vagnetti 1971: Iiv series. My notes from 1985 indicate at
least 70 examples of this type in cabinet 32 of the Orologio storeroom at the Villa Giulia
Museum in Rome.