Mason Ross
We’ve all been there. The family in the villa next to you just commissioned a beautiful, life-sized marble statue for the local temple, and now they get to put their name all over it. Just like that, everyone thinks they are so great and forgets that their patriarch almost received enough votes to be ostracized last month. Wouldn’t it be great to get your own marble deity to show them who the good citizens really are? But between the price of decent marble these days, finding a good craftsman, not to mention the months it’ll take to finish the statue, the cost is just too high.
Well, you may just be in luck. That’s right, your votive statue need not be painstakingly carved out of rock when it could be made out of ever-abundant clay. Terracotta statues and figurines take a fraction of the time to make and are crafted from locally sourced materials. Even better, a single craftsman can produce hundreds of stylish pieces to decorate your neighborhood temple or home thanks to the innovation of mold-made statues!
Terracotta statues and figurines were common throughout the Ancient Mediterranean because clay was relatively simple to refine and an ideal sculpting material. The use of molds to shape clay dates back to the 3rd millennium, but came to the Ancient Greek world around the 7th or 8th century BCE. These mold-made objects, typically figurines, were made an artisan called a coroplast. The Greek style of hollow and thin-walled terracottas, rather than solid clay figurines, became a staple around the 5th century BCE. Hollowing out the statue meant it was lighter and used less material, but it also was at far less risk of cracking or warping when fired than a solid figurine. During the Hellenistic period (beginning 323 BCE), production of coroplastic statues increased and far exceeded hand-sculpted terracottas.
To create a mold, the artisan first sculpts the model in full and allows it to dry and be fired. Then the model is covered in plaster, or clay during the early era of production, which is then fired and left to dry. The plaster is then split and removed, typically in two parts. To create a statue using the mold or molds, thin sheets or sections of clay are pressed into each part of the mold and left to dry. Once dry, the individual parts are removed from their separate molds and joined using wet clay or a slip. The whole figurine is then fired, after which point it is painted and further decorated to produce the finished product.
The subject of a coroplastic figure ranged from votive objects (sometimes taking the form of ailing body parts) to symbols for warding off evil to devotional representations of deities. Many mold-made terracottas are found in burials either because they were meaningful during life or specifically in the funerary context. There are many others without a clear purpose that seem to be primarily decorative. Even detailed or large statues could be produced en masse if the mold-maker had the required skill or the piece was broken into many sections.