Terracotta
Sculpture, architecture and vessels in fired clay, usually unglazed and reddish-brown, prized for modelled detail and warmth.
1 work · 10 related artists
About
Terracotta, Italian for 'baked earth', is porous earthenware fired at relatively low temperatures, its reddish or buff colour coming from iron in the clay. Modelled freely while soft, it keeps the touch of fingers and tools, and has served for figures, reliefs, roof tiles and architectural ornament worldwide.
The Nok culture of present-day Nigeria produced expressive terracotta heads in the first millennium BC, and the life-size army buried near the tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, in the late 3rd century BC, is the most famous ensemble of all. Greek workshops at Tanagra made elegant small figures in the 4th century BC. In Renaissance Florence, Luca della Robbia and his family covered terracotta reliefs in glossy white and blue glaze, and in 18th-century France Clodion modelled lively small figures. Victorian architects clad London's Natural History Museum in terracotta. Look for fingerprints, tool marks and firing cracks.
