CHAPTER FORTY NINE

THE PHENOMENON OF TERRACOTTA:

ARCHITECTURAL TERRACOTTAS

Nancy A. Winter

INTRODUCTION

T

he Etruscan decorative spirit found one of its most impressive expressions in the
roofs of baked clay that adorned houses and public buildings beginning in the
third quarter of the seventh century bc. Thanks largely to the important excavations
at Acquarossa near Viterbo and Poggio Civitate (Murlo) near Siena, an astounding
assortment of terracotta roofs have been documented spanning the Late Orientalizing
to Archaic periods (640/630–510/500 bc). Although early Rome, even under Etruscan
kings, appears to have limited the use of decorated roofs to civic and religious buildings,
while providing even the houses of important personages with undecorated tile roofs,
more and more sites in Etruria are providing evidence for the early Etruscan practice of
decorating even private buildings with elaborate terracotta roofs.
The evolution and types of decorative systems are now becoming clearer. An early
predilection for painted decoration in the white-on-red technique can be linked to local
pottery production but the use of molds for human and feline heads, apparent already
by 630 bc, may be an imported technique; especially notable are the cut-out fl oral and
fi gural plaques placed on the ridges of Late Orientalizing roofs (640/630–600 bc).
Moldmade decoration in relief, with painted details in red, white and black, becomes
one of the hallmarks of Etruscan roofs of the sixth century bc, especially for antefi xes and
fi gured friezes on raking simas and on revetment plaques that protected the rafters of
the pedimental slopes, architrave, wall plates and rafter-ends along the eaves; these roofs
form part of what Della Seta defi ned as the “First Phase” of Etruscan terracotta roofs.^1
Handmade statues in the round, some nearly life-size, are the successors of the cut-out
ridge acroteria of the Late Orientalizing period, maintaining the strong emphasis on the
ridge of certain buildings. After 560 bc, no private houses with decorated roofs have
been documented, but the roofs of temples, civic and funerary structures are outstanding
examples of Etruscan coroplastic art. By the late sixth century bc, large plaques with
handmade sculpture in high relief are applied to the ends of the ridge beam (columen) and
smaller side beams (mutuli) in the open pediment of temples, with a secondary roof on the
pediment fl oor. Most frequently they accompany terracotta roofs designated by Della Seta