Terracotta antefix, satyr's head and female head
Etruscan, 400-300 BC
Found at Cerveteri (ancient Caere), Lazio, Italy
Out on the tiles
This painted head was actually a terracotta antefix, a type of
tile. It was used as a decorative attachment on the roofs of
temples and other buildings. The antefix masked the semicircular
end of the cover-tiles along the eaves of the roof. Architectural
terracottas like this were made in moulds from coarse, unrefined
clay, coated with a light-coloured slip and painted after
firing.
The female head has red-brown hair and wears a diadem, a kind of
broad tiara which has been painted with a design to resemble a
garland of leaves. The woman wears large ear-studs, like an
Etruscan gold example also in The British Museum.
O. Brendel, Etruscan art, Pelican History of Art (Yale University Press, 1995)