The Collection of Greek Terracotta Figurines at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds an extensive and outstanding—but not widely known—collection of figurative terracottas from ancient Greece.1Only the briefest of a sketch, this note aims to provide an overview of its scope and offer some highlights. The collection’s core was shaped during the years 1906-1931, a formative period for the Department of Greek and Roman Art—called the Classical Department until 1935.2 The individuals most responsible for their acquisition and publication were Gisela Richter and purchasing agent John Marshall. Subsequent gifts, bequests, and acquisitions enriched the collection further. In 1953, for instance, the American Institute of Archaeology donated to the museum a large group of fragmentary relief plaques from Praises on Crete.


Approximately 800 Greek terracottas form the bulk of the collection, ranging in date from the Late Helladic IIIA (ca. 1400-1300 B.C.E.) to the late Hellenistic period and covering nearly all regional coroplastic workshops, iconographic types, and styles.4 Among the earliest are Mycenaean figurines of the standard Phi and Psi types, as well as various animal figurines. Of the several Geometric figurines of the so-called “bird-face” type,5 a seated divinity is of special interest because of the diminutive kneeling votary that supports the back of her throne (fig. 1).6 From the Archaic period, fine examples from mainland Greek, especially Attic and Boeotian, as well as East Greek and South Italian workshops abound. They include korai-like figures and seated females with mantles drawn over their heads or wearing elaborate headdresses.7An Attic example stands apart due to its particularly well-preserved painted detail of the throne (fig. 2).8 A double-sided East Greek kore holding a dove that served as an alabastron is exceptional for its fine modeling and overall technical mastery (fig. 3).9 Equally notable is a fragment of a large scale female head from Matauron, a Locrian colony in South Italy. Terracotta was first used in Prehistoric art, as exemplified by the remarkable Venus of Dolni Vestonice (26,000-24,000 BCE), found buried in a layer of ash at a paleolithic encampment in Moravia. Paleolithic Qin warriors were fired in primitive kilns, created underneath open fires.


Also noteworthy are a class of Boeotian terracottas from the first half of the 5th century B.C.E. showing women in everyday occupations,11 a life-size terracotta head of a sphinx,12 and a series of standing peplophoroi that combine heads and torso types with varying degrees of success.13 The best among them, including a large-scale fragmentary terracotta that probably served as a model for bronze casting (fig. 4), are close in style to the Olympia pediments.14 A statuette that according to Edmond Pottier came from the Athenian Acropolis recalls the Archaic marble korai from the site with its detailed rendering of the drapery and hair as well as the gesture of pulling aside the skirt of her chiton (fig. 5).15 A western Greek example is dressed in a chiton adorned with an enigmatic winged figure in low relief.16 From the second half of the 5th century B.C.E. come two mythological groups,17 a robust Nike statuette that is missing its wings,18 a single Locrian pinax,19 and three examples of the so-called Melian reliefs decorated with mythological scenes