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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Etruscan, An Etruscan terracotta antefix of a satyr, circa 3rd - 2nd century BC
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Etruscan, An Etruscan terracotta antefix of a satyr, circa 3rd - 2nd century BC

Etruscan

An Etruscan terracotta antefix of a satyr, circa 3rd - 2nd century BC
Terracotta
Height: 21.9 cm
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Further images

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The antefix is in the form of a head of a young man with saturnine features and wearing a medallion round his neck. Much of the original red and brown...
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The antefix is in the form of a head of a young man with saturnine features and wearing a medallion round his neck. Much of the original red and brown polychrome remains.
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Provenance

American private collection, New York, acquired in the late 1960s – early 1970s
With Antiquarium, Ltd., New York, circa 1981

Literature

During the Archaic period, southern Etruria produced a large number of architectural terracottas (friezes, covering plaques, acroteria, and antefixes) designed to decorate sacred buildings.

Etruscan temples were largely built from perishable materials: wood, bricks, or blocks of tuff for the superstructure; stone for the base. Antefixes had three functions: placed on the eaves of the roof they concealed the ends of the convex tiles and protected them from bad weather; they were also part of the architectural decoration; finally, they had an apotropaic role, banishing bad luck and bad influences from temples.

Made in moulds and painted, they usually took the form of a male or female face. On temple roofs, satyr-head antefixes often alternate with maenad antefixes. There is a similar satyr head antefix in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, object no.98.AD.133. 
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