TERRA-COTTA. The making of figures, bowls and vases of baked clay is one of the most primitive of the arts and has always been carried to a point rivalling all other arts in technical skill and finesse. Various prehistoric figures indicate a high de gree of artistry and an excellent conception of the fundamentals of aesthetic appeal. Equal to the ancient cave paintings in vigour, movement and sureness of drawing, is a group of bison found in the cave of Tuc d'Audouberte, and there is no doubt but that terra cotta was a widely used art at that period.
Pre-dynastic Egyptian figures, often showing indications of painting in brilliant colours, have been found decorated with designs. NIelon-shaped vases, with a small foot and slightly flar ing mouth, provided on their shoulders with cylindrical handles, have also been discovered. These vases are sometimes decorated with paintings of flora and fauna as well as some of the details of the life of these primitive inhabitants. In Assyria and Persia the art of making tiles (see TILE) was developed to a high point at a very early period and such beautiful friezes as those found at Susa, showing animals and warriors in rich browns, yellows and greenish blues, prove this early mastery. In China a recent discovery in the Province of Kansu brought to light a number of finely potted vases showing the utmost sureness of line and decorated with flowing curved conventional motives which probably date about 300o B.C. and which undoubtedly formed the basis of design of bronzes of the Chow dynasty. So well made are these vases that there is no possible doubt but that terra-cotta had been made hundreds of years prior to this date.
In the invention of glaze it seems to be an established fact that the Near East antedated the Far East and this was possibly due to the discovery that Near Eastern clay made a lighter and more porous pottery. It was also discovered at a very early period that the glaze corrected this fault, and thus began the development of glaze.
Little is known concerning the early uses of terra-cotta in Cen tral and South America, but primitive pottery is found in Guate mala in the form of vases, human figures and groups. The model ling, though lacking in perspective and anatomy, is often beautiful in design, and there seems no doubt but that this Mayan civiliza tion had carried on the art from ancient times. In Peru the sculptural decoration is scarcer; the vases themselves are often made in human form.
But we are concerned in this article mainly with that more specific meaning of the term "terra-cotta" indicating modelled and usually unglazed figures. Among the most beautiful dis coveries on the site of Carthage have been the funerary masks, figurines and even masks made for actual use; these show strong Grecian feeling, and yet have faces and figures which are Semitic in character. A large collection of Punic figures was dis
covered ten years ago at the old Carthaginian cemetery at Iviza. Other interesting developments of the art were found at Knos sos. Among these were the faience figures of pre-Hellenic priest esses with tightly corseted waists, bare breasts and flounced skirts, in whose hands writhed snakes. Some of these figures show a re markable modelling, as do the small marine objects, found on the same site, with their true-to-life and decorative beauty. The vases, too, which were of unglazed earth decorated with a yellow ish ochre colour and a darker earth colour, show a remarkable sense of design and proportion in structure as well as beauty of line. Some of these vases were modelled with relief designs and then treated with blue and white coloured glazes. The remarkable faience reliefs of animals which were discovered at Knossos, show a degree of sculptural beauty, design and life-like movement only surpassed by the best of the achievements in Greece.
China arrived at a point of some proficiency in the art dur ing the Han dynasty, or a little before, and many of the tomb figures which were buried with the dead, though, in a sense, crude, are full of life and vigour. Immediately following this period, during the times of unrest between A.D. 26 and A.D. 618, the commencement of the T'ang dynasty, beautiful figures of men and animals were executed in a gray clay and painted with various colours, indications of which are evident on the specimens found to-day. Many of these statuettes were inspired by the Bactrian camels and the great horses which the Mongols introduced from the North into China. Imaginative forms were also created, prominent among which were three-horned, rhinoceros-like ani mals and dogs, sometimes of a ferocious nature.
With the dawn of the T'ang dynasty, which was a great period of refinement, China arrived at a point in this art parallel to that of the Greek achievements, and glazed and unglazed fig ures of great beauty were created. These were mortuary figures placed in the graves as symbols representing the living people whom it was the custom to entomb in earlier periods. The strength of the modelling of these figures surpasses that of the Tanagra figures but there is something lacking in the delicacy and charm which the Greeks succeeded in obtaining. (See POTTERY AND PORCELAIN : Near and Far East; AEGEAN CIVILIZATION.) (W. E. Cx.) Greek.—The uses of clay among the Greeks were varied and extensive. The pottery of terra-cotta vases are described in