The subject of Greek sculpture in terracotta is so wide as to demand a volume to itself; but a discussion of the uses to which clay was put by the Greeks would not be complete without some mention of their achievements in this direction. We propose therefore briefly to review the main features of Greek terracotta statuettes and reliefs, by way of illustrating the purely artistic use which they made of this material.
The subject may be divided under four heads: (1) Large statues; (2) Statuettes or figurines; (3) Reliefs; (4) Moulds. Large or life-size statues belong more particularly to the earlier phases of Greek art, but appear again in its later developments, under Italian influences. Statues of terracotta were also a common feature of Italian art, being, in fact, the usual material employed by Etruscan statuaries, as well as for the decoration of temples (see 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.