With the revival of terra-cotta as an adjunct to mediaeval architecture we find the sculptors of the Italian renaissance turn ing to this material, as a medium for the production of reliefs, busts and even groups of many life-sized figures—again following the practice of classic times. Much of the Florentine terra-cotta sculpture of the 15th century is among the most beautiful plastic work the world has ever seen, especially that by Jacopo della Quercia, Donatello and the sculptors of the next generation. In the i6th century a more realistic style was heightened by painting the figures in oil colours. Many very clever groups of this kind were produced by Ambrogio Foppa (Caradosso) for S. Satiro at Milan and by Guido Mazzoni and Begarelli (1479-1565) for churches in Modena. The introduction of enamelled reliefs in terra-cotta which is so closely associated with the Florentine sculptor Luca della Robbia and his descendants, is specially treated in the article DELLA ROBBIA (q.v.).
From these two centres the development of architectural terra cotta gradually spread over western Europe. The German school influenced the work done in the Low Countries and finally in England, where it also met the direct influence of the Italian school due to the invasion of England by Italian artists such as Torrigiano and others who were invited to England during the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII.
France.—Another offshoot from the fertile plains of northern Italy was implanted in France during the i6th century. Many sculptors from northern and central Italy were attracted to France by Francis I. and his successors, and, among other arts, they intro duced the making of artistic terra-cottas. The most famous name in the lists of these Italian artists is that of Girolamo della Robbia (see article DELLA ROBBIA), who executed, in 1529, the enamelled terra-cotta for the decoration of the "Petit Château de Madrid" in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, for Francis I.
Spain.—At about the same period the Italian modellers or sculptors carried the art into Spain, and many extraordinary works are still extant in various Spanish churches remarkable for their vivid realism and for a too pictorial style which degrades them from their true rank as architectural decoration.
During the 17th and i8th centuries the architectural use of terra-cotta again fell away owing to the increasing use of marble, but that the art still survived in other forms is shown by the portrait busts of Dwight (17th century), though they were made in stoneware and not in unglazed terra-cotta ; and the charming little statuettes and groups made in Lorraine and the adjacent parts of France by Guibal, Cyffie and Lemire, sculptors employed at some of the pottery factories of the period.
It should be mentioned that during the i8th century ordinary clay had fallen into disrepute, but the porcelain figures made at Meissen, Sevres and other continental factories show how per sistent the vogue of figure-modelling in clay had become. (See POTTERY AND PORCELAIN.) The last great revival of terra-cotta took place in the Sevres plant and consisted of the "biscuit" figures and groups modelled with great skill by the best French sculptors of the day. Men like Pajou Pigalle, Clodion (Claude Michele), La Rue, Caffieri, Fal conet, Boizot, Julien, Le Riche, etc., executed things of real artistic merit, for though lacking somewhat in the sculpturesque quality of stone-carving they were of great delicacy and life and obtained a sensual quality typical of the art of the day. This fac tory, however, from 1792 to 1801, as a result of the French Revo lution, barely existed and was only revived later by Napoleon after which time, however, very little terra-cotta was executed.
Sculptors of the 19th and 20th centuries have been less inclined to this art for the reason that it involves a personal retouching of the detail of each piece, while the casting in bronze can be exe cuted by skilled artisans. The unfortunate result is that few works are being done and those only from time to time in an experimental mood by various sculptors. (See SCULPTURE TECH