- chapter 29: Tarquinia, Sacred areas and sanctuaries –
Temple III was equipped with the famous terracotta plaque of the Winged Horses
Group (Fig. 29.15); its chronology accords well with this phase from a formal, stylistic
and iconographic point of view. The recent reconstruction of the Group is based on two
more terracotta fragments that share the style, technique and ceramic composition of the
Winged Horses: the bottom part of a female fi gure, whose dress is decorated with star
motifs, and a vessel of closed form. From an iconographic point of view, considering all
three surviving elements of the pediment, only the story of Herakles’ apotheosis, after
his burning on the pyre, seems to include them all. The best come from the repertoire of
earlier Attic red-fi gure pottery, for example the red-fi gure pelike attributed to the Painter
of Kadmos (450–400 bc) (Fig. 29.16), and on more or less contemporary Apulian fi gured
ware, for example the krater of the Painter of Lycurgus (370–350 bc) (Fig. 29.17), that
combine all these elements.
In these examples the main scene is distributed over several levels and this is one of the
reasons why we confi rm M. Pallottino’s solution of a “closed” pediment for the Temple of
the Winged Horses:^15 other important issues come along with the 22° slope of the top of
the plaque, the width of the base of the pediment (25.5 m) and the metrological analysis
Figure 29.15 The Winged Horses Group after restoration. Tarquinia, Museo Nazionale Tarquiniense.
Thanks to Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici per l’Etruria Meridionale.Figure 29.16 Pelike of the Kadmos Painter (Beazley). Munich, Antikensammlungen, inv. 2360.
Bagnasco Giannni 2009: 125, Fig. 19.