History of Ancient Pottery: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman. Volume 2 (of 2) by Walters et al.

were made from models (_proplasmata_) and built up in several pieces on a wooden framework, known as _crux_ or _stipes_.[2651] A reference to this method may be traced in a fable of Phaedrus,[2652] which describes Prometheus as having made human figures in clay in separate pieces, and, on returning from a supper with Bacchus, joined them together wrongly, so that the sexes became confused. The smaller figures were all made from moulds, by means of which they could be repeated with but slight alterations. Few statuettes seem to have been made after the second century of the Empire. * * * * * The range of subjects in Roman terracottas is much the same as in the Greek figures of the Hellenistic period. At Pompeii _genre_ figures predominate, including such types as gladiators, athletes in the circus, slaves carrying bundles, and personages in Roman costume.[2653] A favourite type at Pompeii is a mask of a youth in a Phrygian cap.[2654] There is a decided preference shown for portraits and grotesques. Von Rohden,[2655] in dealing with the question of the extent to which these figures represent Greek or purely Roman types, considers that although the influence of the former is still strong, yet they are marked by such wide differences that they must be ranked in the latter category. He dates them in the time of Vespasian, in which the decadence which had begun with the later Hellenistic age is in the Roman fabrics still more strongly accentuated. The style is negligent, the proportions faulty, and the art of colouring practically lost. They are only redeemed from insignificance by the taste for portraiture and the interest which attaches to the reproduction of motives borrowed from contemporary life. The Pompeii figures may serve as typical Roman terracottas, but they are also found elsewhere in Italy, as well as in other parts of the Roman Empire; nearly all, however, are of inferior merit and execution. At Praeneste in 1878, on the site of the temple of Fortuna Primigenia, were found _genre_ figures and votive objects,[2656] and similar _ex votos_ have come to light at Gabii.[2657] At Nemi figures have been found which are obviously of Roman date, some of considerable size.[2658] From time to time finds have been made in Rome, and there is a pretty little head in the British Museum found in the Tiber (D 383), which, however, may be of Greek workmanship. The industry also extended from Rome to the provinces, and even in Britain terracotta figures are sometimes found, as at Richborough[2659]; at Caistor, by Norwich, a terracotta head of Diana, of fairly good style, is recorded.[2660] There are also in the Guildhall Museum some terracottas in the coarse red clay which characterises most of the British examples: a Venus on a swan; a female head with turreted crown, of archaistic style, from Finsbury; and a large figure of Proserpina holding a fruit, of very fair style, from Liverpool Street.[2661] A figure of a boy on horseback is or was in the Museum of Practical Geology.[2662]