- Nancy A. Winter –
base molding that ends at the corners of the roof in a ram’s head or animal protome; an
open-work cresting, separately made, inserted into a channel in the top of the raking
sima and handmade fi gures of snakes or riders superimposed on the front of some simas;
revetment plaques with palmettes and lotus fl owers in relief, often with circumscribing
bands and cut-out bottom edge following the contour of the fl oral design, on the rafters of
the pedimental slopes, architrave, rafter-ends on the eaves, and wall plates; eaves tiles with
a painted underside (generally zigzags or meanders) and antefi xes decorated with heads
of women (probably maenads) and silens, surrounded by a nimbus of concave tongues or
a fl oral pattern in relief; handmade, fi gural high reliefs on the larger ridge beam (columen)
and smaller side beams (mutuli) in the open pediments; antefi xes, sometimes full-fi gure
creatures such as Typhon or Sirens, other times smaller antefi xes with female and silen
heads surrounded by a nimbus of tongues, on the fl oor of the open pediment.^61 One of the
earliest and most complete roofs in Etruria with all of these elements decorated the temple
of Apollo in the Portonaccio sanctuary at Veii, dated 510–500 bc, where life-size statues
of deities walked along the ridge.^62 Some early fi fth century bc roofs have instead fi gural
central acroteria framed by inward-curving volutes, with relief on the front and painted
decoration on the fl at back.^63 Some of the fi nest examples of Classical and Hellenistic
Etruscan terracotta sculpture decorated pediments at Falerii and Orvieto.^64
By the third century bc smaller temples with a single cella, prostyle columns at
the front and back, and no decoration in the pediments retain the tall raking simas
and fl oral revetment plaques typical of the Second Phase, but have full-fi gure antefi xes
often depicting potnia theron along the eaves; a fl oral central acroterion crowns the end
of the ridge.^65 Closed pediments with fi gural decoration of the fi rst half of the second
century bc have elaborate compositions of handmade terracotta sculptures mounted on
fl at backgrounds designed as a whole, then cut into segments for fi ring, and recomposed
and nailed to wooden backers.^66 These complex scenes demonstrate the persistence of
Etruscan technical skill and love of decoration down to the end of their existence, long
after most of Etruria had succumbed to Roman domination.
Figure 49.3 Veii, Portonaccio sanctuary: reconstruction of a pediment with painted fl oral decoration.
Drawing by Renate Sponer Za.