The Architectural Decoration in Terracotta from Early Latin Temples in the Museo di Villa Giulia

Abstract

The republican art of Rome and Latium has been much neglected. Even the admirable article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica which is signed by one of our foremost scholars, the same writer's Companion to Roman Studies, and the article on Roman art in the Cambridge Companion to Latin Studies begin the subject of Roman art with Augustus, or give only the briefest of indications for what precedes; yet more can be done in the way of reconstructing a picture of the earlier period than most archaeologists suppose, and it is my purpose in the present paper to show how the fictile decorations from the early Latin temples can be used to this end. My examples are taken mainly from the collection of terracotta recently arranged in the new wing of the Museo di Villa Giulia. These form a homogeneous group from sites in the immediate vicinity of Rome, and they are exhibited as far as possible in chronological order, so that the development of this branch of art can be studied from its earliest manifestations to its decay in the last century of the republic, when terracotta decoration had to give way to the marble sculptures introduced in the wake of Hellenistic art.