Etruscan temples were also largely built of wood, with a covering of terracotta slabs, as the evidence of recent excavations shows. This method of decoration, which, as we saw in a previous chapter (Vol. I. p. [100]), was largely practised in Italy and Sicily, and even spread thence to Greece, as at Olympia, is not alluded to by Vitruvius in his description of Etruscan temples (iv. 7), although he speaks of the wooden construction of the roofs; but he alludes to antepagmenta fixed on the front of the temples, which may refer to the terracotta slabs.[[2346]] Earlier restorations made after his descriptions are imperfect in this respect, only regarding construction and not decorative effect.[[2347]] It is at any rate clear that the roof had a pediment on the front only, the other three sides projecting over and forming eaves, round which hung the pendent slabs (see below); they were not required in front because of the portico. Araeostyle temples, the same writer tells us, had wooden architraves and pediments, ornamented with sculpture in terracotta. The cinerary urns often supply evidence as to the construction of the roofs, with their exact imitation of tiles.
We have now remains of at least four temples built in this method, or, rather, of their terracotta decoration: from Cervetri in Berlin, from Civita Lavinia in the British Museum (Plates II.-III.), from Alatri (1882), and from Falerii or Civita Castellana (1886).[[2348]] Other remains of architectural terracotta work come from Orvieto,[[2349]] Pitigliano,[[2350]] and Luni (see below), and from Conca or Satricum,[[2351]] the latter being chiefly antefixal ornaments of the ordinary Italian types. The Cervetri remains consist of roof-tiles, antefixal ornaments with figures in relief in front, and friezes with chariots and warriors.[[2352]] Portions of a similar frieze from the same site are in the British Museum,[[2353]] as are also three antefixes in the same style as one in Berlin from Cervetri (Plate [LIX].).[[2354]] They belong to the fifth century, and illustrate a later development from the ordinary archaic type—idealised female heads or heads of Satyrs with rich polychrome decoration. Another example in Berlin appears to represent Juno Sospita.[[2355]] The friezes are a good example of the Italo-Ionic style of the end of the sixth century, the points of comparison with the Chalcidian and other B.F. vases being particularly noteworthy.[[2356]]
But for information on the form of the Etruscan temple these are too fragmentary to be of any use. The remains from Alatri, Civita Castellana, and Civita Lavinia are much more illuminating. The last-named, of which some description has already been given (Vol. I. p. [101]), are partly archaic, partly of the fourth century, the two former wholly of the later date; but allowing for differences of style, the general arrangement was in all cases practically the same. The front of the temple was in the form of a pediment supported on columns, with ornamental raking cornices, and akroteria in the form of figures or groups. Along the sides and back ran gutters, with lion-head spouts at intervals, faced by upright cornices, with pendent plates of terracotta, or “barge-boards” hanging free and ornamented with patterns in relief. These were for protection against weather, like the edgings to the roofs of Swiss châlets and modern railway stations. The practice was quite un-Greek, and peculiar to Etruria. The antefixal ornaments were continued along the sides above the cornice. The architraves were also ornamented with terracotta slabs, on which were palmette patterns; and thus the whole formed a rich and continuous system of terracotta plating which completely covered the woodwork of the architraves and roof. All the slabs were ornamented with coloured patterns in relief, or simply painted on a white slip, such as maeanders, tongue, scale-pattern, lotos-flowers, or various forms of the palmette.
PLATE LIX
1. Etruscan Antefix (Fifth Cent.)
2. Etruscan Sarcophagus (Third Cent.)
(British Museum).
The existing remains of Etruscan monumental sculpture in clay are, as has been indicated, not large. Some of the architectural antefixes are almost important enough to be included under this head, especially those in the form of figures or groups modelled almost in the round. These belong mostly to the fifth century B.C., and the finest example is the group in the Berlin Museum from the Cervetri find already mentioned, representing Eos carrying off Kephalos[[2357]]; it is in the style of about 480 B.C. A smaller but still very effective example is the antefix from Civita Lavinia in the British Museum, representing a Satyr and Maenad awaiting the advent of Dionysos (Plate II.).[[2358]] With these must be reckoned the sculptured friezes from Cervetri in the British and Berlin Museums, and the reliefs on the British Museum sarcophagus from the same site.[[2359]] In all these the same prevalence of Ionic Greek influence may be observed, which is characteristic of so much Etruscan work of the late archaic period, both in terracotta and bronze, as in the reliefs of the Polledrara bust.[[2360]] This influence, which is due to the strong Hellenic element in the civilisation of Caere and the Campanian cities, we have also seen at work in the vase-paintings of the period.[[2361]]