The reception of Greek figurative terracottas in the Age of Enlightenment1

Abstract

Abstract While figurative terracottas from Greco-Roman antiquity were brought to light in considerable numbers from sites on the Italian mainland and in Sicily in the seventeenth century, they were consistently overlooked as important and representative examples of classical art. It was only in the later eighteenth century in Sicily that important collections of Greek figurative terracottas were assembled that began to attract the attention of northern Europeans. A demand for these accessible examples of miniature Greek sculpture arose that ultimately contributed to the formation of some of the most important antiquities collections in Europe.