Pişmiş Toprak Figürinler ve Anıtsal Heykeller: Bağımsız Mı Takipçi Mi

Abstract

Since the very early period, one of the field of art which human being could be depicted in a real-like manner have been the plastic art. In this field, sto­ne sculptures and terracotta figurines have a special importance. In the region of ancient Aegean, the earli­est human representations among three dimensional ones, had been the figurines made from clay. Within the middle of the VII th century BC, in parallel with the progress of the knowledge in art and the sense of aes­thetics, sculptors started to use the marble and the limestone in order to create live-size human figures. From then on, till to the end of ancient times, monu­mental sculptures were one of the most strong images in terms of religion and social life. Terracotta figurines share the same chronology with monumental sculp­tures. However, there have been some diffrences be­tween two field of art in terms of their functions and meanings. In spite of the technical and funtional dif­ferences, tipological characteristics reveal the inter­raciton between these two fields. For understanding the characteristics of this interaction clearly, it is esen­tial to examine the periodical progress of the terra­cotta figurines and monumental sculptures. It seems that there used to be a change of role between figu­rines and statues concerning to lead to the style. While terracotta figurines have the effects of specific monu­mental statues in certain periods, they also define the order of the sculpture in some periods. Consequently, as terracottas had their own dynamics in terms of ty­pe, iconography and function, they had a very im­portant role for understanding the ancient people and their lives.