Attic alpha the forms E and II seem to have been used indifferently in Gaul at all periods. The “signature” sometimes combines the two names, as in the form

AVOT
SACRILLOS FORM
CARATRI

which has been taken to mean Sacrillos fecit forma Caratri, “made by Sacrillos from Caratrius’ mould.”[[2672]] Among the Roman names which occur are Attilianus, Lucanus, Pistillus, Priscus, Taurus, and Tiberius; among the Gaulish, Abudinus, Belinus, Camulenus, and Tritoguno.

From Blanchet.
FIG. 198. GAULISH FIGURE OF APHRODITE FROM NORMANDY.

A large majority of the existing statuettes were, as we have seen, made in the valley of the Allier; these show more conspicuously than any others, the influence of transplanted Graeco-Roman art. Curiously enough none have been found at Lezoux, one of the chief pottery-centres of Gaul, although there is abundant evidence that the vases and statuettes were made in the same workshops (see above).[[2673]] M. Blanchet considers that there was a large and important manufacture in Western France, which may have been inspired by the Allier workshops, but mainly exhibits native characteristics; he also notes the scarcity of these figures in Southern Gaul (Narbonensis), which may perhaps be explained by the preference there shown for bronze statuettes and vases with medallions (p. [530]).[[2674]] Other centres were Cesson, Meaux (where Atilanus and Sacrillos can be located), Bourbon-Lancy in Saône-et-Loire, and St. Rémy-en-Rollat (see p. [516]), where vases also were made of the local white clay. M. Déchelette has been able to assign to the last-named pottery a date between A.D. 15 and 50. Another fabric was in the neighbourhood of Liège, and in Germany there were centres at Salzburg, and at Cologne, where the maker Vindex can be dated in the reign of Postumus (A.D. 260-270).[[2675]] An important maker, Pistillus, had a pottery at Autun; his statuettes are found all over Gaul,[[2676]] and the name appears on vases and coins, and also in an inscription.[[2677]] Julius Allusa had a workshop at Bordeaux. In West and North-West France statuettes are found with the name of Rextugenos; they are all of peculiar and original character, with highly-ornamented backgrounds to the figures, and easily distinguished. The specimen given in Fig. [198], representing Venus Genetrix, was found at Caudebec-les-Elbeuf in Normandy (Seine-Inférieure); it bears the inscription RIIXTVGIINOSSVLLIASAVVOT, Rextugenos Sullias auvot (sc. fecit).[[2678]]

An interesting find of terracotta figures was made at Colchester in 1866,[[2679]] consisting of thirteen figures presenting exact analogies to the Gallo-Roman terracottas of the second period both in type and style. One very poor specimen represents Hercules with club and lion-skin; another a bull, and a third a bust of a boy (perhaps a portrait of Nero or Britannicus); four are recumbent figures. The rest are more or less grotesque, including caricatured seated figures holding books or rolls, and a buffoon. With them were found vases in the form of animals of yellow-glazed ware. Figures of suckling goddesses (see below) have been found in Britain, and similar finds of Gallo-Roman types in white clay in London, among them a Venus holding a tress of her hair.[[2680]] Votive offerings of parts of the body and figures of the goddess Fecunditas were found near the source of the Seine, in a temple of Dea Sequana, the local river-deity.[[2681]] Other finds have been made in Touraine, Anjou, La Vendée, Brittany, and Normandy, brought by commerce from the Allier potteries; and in Germany at Heddernheim and on the Rhine. Part of a group of some size in purely Graeco-Roman style from the Department of Marne is now in the British Museum (Morel Collection).

Tudot originally classified the Gaulish terracottas chronologically in three periods according to style, and in this he has been followed by M. Pottier. But M. Blanchet[[2682]] has pointed out that the former’s method was altogether unscientific, that he trusted too much to the evidence of coin-finds, and that he was altogether wrong in conceiving the possibility of any being anterior to the Roman conquest. On the whole the chronological data are exceedingly vague, and can only be accepted in isolated instances, as in the case of the finds at St. Rémy-en-Rollat (A.D. 15-50) or Cologne (A.D. 260-270), or where a resemblance in the coiffure of the feminine figures to those of Roman ladies can be traced. Some figures may probably be dated about A.D. 100 on the latter ground, the head-dress recalling those of Domitia and Julia the daughter of Titus. But it can only be laid down with certainty that the manufacture of statuettes was introduced into Gaul with the terra sigillata or ornamented red pottery at the beginning of the Imperial period. Where there is a question of decadent or barbaric style, as is undoubtedly often the case, it does not necessarily imply a late date, but only that the inferior work is due to the incapacity of some local artist, and figures of varying style must frequently be contemporaneous.[[2683]]

In dealing with the types of Gaulish terracottas, their origin and signification, M. Blanchet divides the subjects into three classes, of which the first is not only the largest but the most interesting: divinities, subjects from daily life, and animals. The deities are not those we should expect from Caesar’s statement[[2684]] that Mercury, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva represent the scale of popularity in Gaul, for they are mainly variants of one type, that of Venus. Many of these Venus figures reproduce types familiar in Greek and Graeco-Roman art, such as the Anadyomene, and the Cnidian or Pudica type; but in the majority she is frankly recognised as a Nature-goddess (Aphrodite Pandemos or Venus Genetrix), and hence we find numerous examples in which the old Oriental conception of the nude Aphrodite-Astarte with pronounced sexual characteristics, so common in the primitive terracottas of Chaldaea, Phoenicia, and Cyprus,[[2685]] once more reappears, as in Fig. [198]. Of almost equal frequency is the seated type of the Mother-Goddess or Κουροτρόφος, suckling a child[[2686]]; this is not peculiar to Gaul, but is found in the terracottas of Southern Italy.[[2687]] We may compare also the Fecunditas types on Roman coins.[[2688]] Blanchet thinks that the goddess Rumina may be here intended, but prefers to adopt the general term of Mother-Goddess.