Ancient Terracottas from South Italy and Sicily | Ancient Terracottas

253 Pages·2016·11.13 MB·English

ANCIENT TERRACOTTAS FROM SOUTH ITALY AND SICILY
in the j. paul getty museum

The free, online edition of this catalogue, available athttp://www.getty.edu/publications/terracottas,
includes zoomable high-resolution photography and a select number of 360° rotations; the ability to
filter the catalogue by location, typology, and date; and an interactive map drawn from the Ancient
World Mapping Center and linked to the Getty’s Thesaurus of Geographic Names and Pleiades. Also
available are free PDF, EPUB, and MOBI downloads of the book; CSV and JSON downloads of the object
data from the catalogue and the accompanying Guide to the Collection; and JPG and PPT downloads of
the main catalogue images.
© 2016 J. Paul Getty Trust
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy
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First edition, 2016
Last updated, December 19, 2017
https://www.github.com/gettypubs/terracottas
Published by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Getty Publications
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Los Angeles, California 90049-1682
www.getty.edu/publications
Ruth Evans Lane, Benedicte Gilman, and Marina Belozerskaya,Project Editors
Robin H. Ray and Mary Christian,Copy Editors
Antony Shugaar,Translator
Elizabeth Chapin Kahn,Production
Stephanie Grimes,Digital Researcher
Eric Gardner,Designer & Developer
Greg Albers,Project Manager
Distributed in the United States and Canada by the University of Chicago Press
Distributed outside the United States and Canada by Yale University Press, London
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: J. Paul Getty Museum, author, issuing body. | Ferruzza, Maria Lucia, editor.
Title: Ancient terracottas from South Italy and Sicily in the J. Paul Getty Museum / Maria Lucia Ferruzza.
Description: Los Angeles : J. Paul Getty Museum, [2016] | ©2016 | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015042795 (print) | LCCN 2015048344 (ebook) | ISBN 9781606064863 (pbk.) | ISBN
9781606064856 (epub) | ISBN 9781606061237 (online)
Subjects: LCSH: Terra-cotta sculpture, Ancient—Italy, Southern—Catalogs. | Terra-cotta sculpture,
Ancient—Italy—Sicily—Catalogs. | J. Paul Getty Museum—Catalogs. | Terra-cotta
sculpture—California—Los Angeles—Catalogs.
Classification: LCC NB145 .J27 2016 (print) | LCC NB145 (ebook) | DDC 733/.309377–dc23
LC record available athttp://lccn.loc.gov/2015042795
Front cover: Thymiaterion Supported by a Statuette of Nike (detail, cat. 53)
Back cover: Group of a Seated Poet (Orpheus?) and Sirens (cats. 1–3)
pp. ii–iii: Fragment of a Head (detail, cat. 22)
p. vii: Statuette of a Mime (detail, cat. 29)
pp. 6–7: Head of a Woman (detail, cat. 51)
p. 214: Head and Torso of a Youth with Tarentine mold (detail, fig. 12)
Contents
Director’s Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
TIMOTHY POTTS
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Production Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Map of South Italy and Sicily. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Catalogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Taranto Region (Cats. 1–37). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Canosa (Cats. 38–46) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Medma (Cats. 47–48) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Other South Italy (Cats. 49–50). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Sicily (Cats. 51–60) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Guide to the Collection of South Italian and Sicilian Terracottas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
CLAIRE L. LYONS
Abbreviations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Director’s Foreword
Timothy Potts
The tradition of making sculpture in terracotta represents larger collection of over a thousand terracottas described by
one of the signal artistic accomplishments of ancient Italian Claire Lyons inan accompanying guide.
cultures before and during the rise of Rome as the Among our holdings perhaps the most remarkable of
dominant regional power. From Pliny the Elder we learn all is the life-size funerary group of a seated poet as
that in the seventh centurybc, an exiled Corinthian Orpheus and two sirens captured in a moment of song
merchant, Demaratus, introduced the fashioning of figures (cats. 1,2, and3). This is surely one of the most spectacular
from baked earth, an art that was “brought to perfection by achievements of the ancient coroplast’s art from anywhere
Italy and especially by Etruria” (Naturalis Historia35.45, in the Mediterranean. Much interest attaches also to the
157). The first recorded artist names on the peninsula in fact smaller figurines that represent miniature versions of
belong to sculptors who worked in clay, Vulca of Veii and celebrated sculptures, such as the Apollo playing a kithara
Gorgasus and Damophilus of Magna Graecia, who produced (cat. 44), which echoes the Apollo Kitharoidos carved by
decorations for temples in Rome around the turn of the Timarchides in the second centurybc. A unique pair of
sixth to fifth centuriesbc. As several examples in the Getty altars with expressively modeled reliefs of the Adonis myth
collection show, Tarentine masters were not far behind, (cats. 47and48) depict aspects of cult worship and faith in
signing their works by inscribing their names into the damp the afterlife that held particular sway among the residents
clay matrix. Identified in later Greek literature as of Magna Graecia.
coroplasts—literally, “modelers of girls”—these artisans Following an introduction to the collection, the
crafted figurines of great variety and expressiveness that are catalogue entries situate each object within its wider
among these cultures’ most distinctive art forms. typological and iconographical milieu, citing connections to
Mass produced and finished by hand, terracottas were centers of production in Puglia, Lucania, Calabria, Sicily,
ubiquitous in the ancient Mediterranean. Usually modest in and the Greek mainland. Technical analyses conducted by
scale, statuettes circulated widely over long periods and the Getty’s Antiquities Conservation Department have
through multiple generations of molds, providing critical revealed details of manufacturing techniques and the
evidence for regional styles, patterns of trade, and local application of a palette of polychrome pigments and gilding.
cults. Commonly found in dwellings, graves, and Ancient Terracottas from South Italy and Sicilyis the
sanctuaries, terracottas gave tangible form both to private second in a series of web-based scholarly catalogues of the
spiritual beliefs and to public religious observances. collection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan art at the Getty
This catalogue features a selection of the most Villa. By presenting this important material in an online
important works attributed to coroplastic workshops in format, our aim is to launch a new platform to share the
southern Italy and Sicily from the collection of the J. Paul latest research and to encourage readers to explore related
Getty Museum. The sixty terracottas investigated by Maria groups of terracottas in the museum. We are grateful to the
Lucia Ferruzza span the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic author, all the contributors, and the Publications staff for
periods from about 550 to 100bc. Comprising large-scale realizing this innovative and accessible guide to the
sculptures and statuettes, as well as votive heads, altars, collection.
decorative appliqués, and masks, they number among a
vi
Acknowledgments
I extend my sincere and affectionate gratitude to the staff of Belozerskaya, Ruth Evans Lane, Elizabeth Kahn, Greg
the J. Paul Getty Museum, particularly to Claire Lyons, Albers, Eric Gardner, Stephanie Grimes, Rachel Barth, and
curator of Antiquities, and Karol Wight, former senior other staff at Getty Publications who made this catalogue a
curator of Antiquities, who supported and encouraged me reality.
through the many stages of this project, assuring an ongoing I am especially grateful to Clemente Marconi, first
dialogue that has enriched me and this project enormously. editor of the manuscript, and Caterina Greco for their
A grateful acknowledgment goes to Marion True, former continuing intellectual generosity and enlightening
curator of Antiquities, who initially entrusted this project to conversations.
me in the conviction that it would be a significant addition Heartfelt thanks are owed to all the colleagues who
to scholarly knowledge of the Getty collections. offered suggestions to improve and enrich the work, though
I would also like to thank current and former responsibility for any errors or omissions rests with me
colleagues in the Department of Antiquities—Mary Louise alone. In particular, it was a privilege to have the superb
Hart, Kenneth Lapatin, Janet Burnett Grossman, John guidance of Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, Paola Pelagatti, and
Papadopoulos, and Alexandra Sofroniew—whose Salvatore Settis, who found the time and patience to read
professionalism and collaboration made my task a privilege and review parts of this book. I had stimulating and
and a pleasure. Special thanks are due to Jerry Podany, invaluable conversations with Gianfranco Adornato, Nunzio
former senior conservator of Antiquities, Jeffrey Maish, Allegro, Nicola Bonacasa, Paolo Carafa, Rosa Maria Cucco,
Susan Lansing Maish, Erik Risser, Marie Svoboda in the Maria Antonietta Dell’Aglio, Daniel Graepler, Maria
Department of Antiquities Conservation, and to David Costanza Lentini, Enzo Lippolis, Paolo Moreno, Giampaolo
Scott, for their observations on and contributions to the Nadalini, Erik Østby, Nicoletta Poli, Valeria Tardo, Stefano
scientific analysis of several terracottas. Stimulating Vassallo, and Carla Aleo Nero.
discussions of technical problems made me more confident My gratitude goes also to my family for their patience
in my understanding of unusual aspects of some of the in enduring my preoccupations during the production of
terracottas. I am grateful to Benedicte Gilman, Marina the book.
vii