By Walter Geer

1891

(President of New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company, 1896-1919)

A complete history of the use of clay as a constructive or decorative material in architecture would be analogous to that of civilization itself with its advances and declines, for the authentic records of this branch of pottery are older than those of any other ceramic production, extending through forty-one centuries. 

The art of pottery is the most ancient and universal of all, including as it does, in its widest sense, all objects made of clay moulded into form while in a moist, plastic state, and then hardened by fire (Encyclopedia Britannica, article “Pottery,” 9th Edition). Connecting itself on the one hand with geology and chemistry, on the other with painting and sculpture, pottery is the natural outgrowth of two of the first necessities of man’s existence: the preparation of food and the need of shelter. It is thus intimately identified with the domestic and social life of all races. Its productions are the most enduring of man’s handiwork. Objects that have out-lived history are to be viewed not only as specimens of the condition of the art at the time of their production, but as exponents of the habits and domestic life, and the aesthetics of races long since passed away. The fact that in this practically imperishable material, we have presented to us more completely than in any other, the thoughts and works of artists in every successive age of the world, and in every country at any time civilized, from a period of almost fabulous antiquity down to the present time, shows the immense field for intelligent inquiry into the uses and advantages of the artistic employment of burnt clay.

It may at first seem a somewhat bold assertion, that the burnt clay of the ancients is identical in substance with the terra-cotta of to-day, but such is the fact. Terra-cotta is undoubtedly the oldest building material known to history, other than wood, and was probably employed in the making of domestic vessels before building was known as an art. 

The term by which this material is technically known, literally “cooked earth,” dates from the period of the Italian renaissance, when terra-cotta was first largely used for architectural purposes. But the material itself, both in the form of bricks and in the more elaborate constructive and decorative forms was largely used by the earliest builders. The fact that clay when subjected to great heat would become a hard brittle substance must have been discovered in primitive times by the kindling of fires on clayey soil, and the utility of this substance for domestic and architectural purposes have been suggested as the result. The fragments from the ruins of the most ancient temples and palaces reveal its application for these purposes. In fact, terra-cotta may be said to be prehistoric in its origin, for it is in some cases our only link with nations of the most remote antiquity. To terra-cotta we owe nearly all the information we possess in regard to the most ancient states and empires; bank notes, deeds of property, private transactions, public records, still being found in a good state of preservation among the ruins of ancient Babylon and other great cities of the past.

The public records of the Assyrians were kept minutely inscribed on cylinders and tablets of clay which were afterwards baked. These furnish complete materials for transcribing the history of those times. To these records, revealed by the researches of Layard, Rawlinson and others, we owe much of our knowledge of the ancient Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Egyptians. 

The historical researches with reference to the Tews have also been much assisted by the inscriptions found on earthen bowls taken from the ruins of Babylon. It seems to us important to dwell somewhat on the historical aspect of this subject, before considering its modern development and uses, as so few seem to be aware that we are not dealing with a new substance but rather with the oldest manufactured material to which we have historical references. Indeed, it may be well said that, so far from history perpetuating the records of terra-cotta, terra-cotta has perpetuated the records of history.

FIRST EMPLOYMENT.

The earliest reference to the use of burnt clay as a building material is to be found in the Eleventh Chapter of Genesis, in connection with the building of the Tower of Babel :—”And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. ”Sun-dried and baked clay was employed by nearly all the great nations of antiquity in their earlier works. 

The granaries and storehouses of Egypt, the vast mounds of Nineveh and Babylon, the aqueducts and other remains of Roman times, testify how wide-spread was its use. Nor was it used merely as a building material. The clay cylinders of Nineveh have been the means of treasuring up the documentary records of a monarchy, of which other direct records have almost wholly perished; while our museums are full of wonderful evidences, in their collections of Etruscan vases, of the beautiful art, the refined taste, and the poetic imagination of this mysterious people, whose very history is lost and whose race and era are disputed questions. All nations whose early history is known to us, Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Gauls, have left us records of their thoughts on terra cotta.

“Art commenced with the simplest shape, and by working in clay.” (John Winckelmann: History of Ancient Art, Vol. i, page 193 ) The invention of the art of working in terra-cotta was claimed by the Corinthians, who are said to have exhibited in their city specimens of the first efforts in it from the hand of the celebrated potter Dibutades. In order to preserve the likeness of his daughter’s lover, he moulded in terra-cotta the shadow of his profile on the wall, and this production is said by Pliny to have been in existence when the city was stormed by Mummius. 

The invention was also claimed by the Samians, who maintained that Rhoecus and Theodorus, who were sculptors in bronze, and who flourished about 657 B. C, had first practiced the art of modelling. As the early sculptors cast their bronzes solid, like the Egyptians, who are supposed to have been the fathers of the art, it is evident that modelling in clay must have preceded working in bronze.

The Egyptians made small figures of terra cotta covered with inscriptions. Referring to these portrait statues recently discovered in the secret recesses of the tombs around the bases of the Pyramids, Fergusson says: “Nothing more wonderfully truthful and realistic has been done since that time, till the invention of photography; and even that can hardly represent a man with such unflattering truthfulness as these old colored terra-cotta portraits of the sleek rich men of the Pyramid period”  Bricks burned and unburned were employed in the construction of the Great Wall of China, the most stupendous work in the line of fortifications ever attempted by human hands.

GREECE AND ROME.

Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, terracotta was employed for an immense variety of purposes, from the commonest objects of every-day use to the most elaborate and ambitious works of art, such as colossal statues and groups. Pausanias mentions having seen at Athens two remarkable terra-cotta groups, representing Theseus killing the robber Sciron, and Heos (Aurora)carrying off Kephalos. The celebrated painter Zeuxis was accustomed to model in terra-cotta the subjects which he afterwards painted, and many of the artists of the later schools combined the plastic art with that of painting. The immense number of terracotta objects at Athens is alluded to by Demosthenes in his first Phillipic.

On a larger scale, terra-cotta was adapted by the Greeks to important architectural ornamentation. Many fine examples have been found at Olympia, and among the ruined temples of Selinus. In some cases the main cornices of the building were simply blocked out square in stone, and then covered with moulded plaques of terra cotta, carefully formed to fit on and around the angles of the block. The large cymatium which forms the upper member of the cornice is curved upwards, so as to prevent the rain water from dripping all along the edge; and at intervals it is pierced by ornamental clay pipes, which project like a medieval gargoyle. In some examples from Selinus the cymatium is pierced with a beautiful open pattern of lotus leaf. The greatest care was taken in fitting these applied mouldings where each plaque joined the next, and especially in making them fit closely on to the stone blocks, in which rebates were cut to receive each plaque.

As in other branches of art, the Romans closely copied the Greeks in their wide application of terracotta for statues, reliefs, and architectural ornaments. 

A large number of beautiful Grreco-Roman reliefs exist, many having designs evidently copied from earlier Greek sculpture. Berlin, the Louvre, the British Museum, and many places in Italy possess fine collections. Friezes, with beautiful reliefs, twelve to eighteen inches deep, often occur, little inferior in execution to the earlier Greek work. These terra-cottas belong to the early period of the empire. At the end of the first and in the earlier part of the second century, A.D., the use of terracotta for architectural adornment was carried to a high point of perfection in Rome. Many buildings of the period have the most elaborate decoration, moulded in clay and fitted together with wonderful neatness. Not only enriched cornices and friezes were made of terra cotta, but even Corinthian columns, with their elaborate acanthus capitals. The best existing examples in Rome are the Amphitheatrum Castrense, many tombs on the Via Latina, and the barracks of the Vllth cohort of the guards in the Trastevere.

It would require too much space to enumerate all the various forms and subjects represented in terra-cotta by the ancients. 

Some of the extensive uses to which it was put are thus summarized by Mr. Birch: “It supplied the most important parts both of public and private buildings, as the brick, roof-tiles, imbrices, drain-tiles, columns, and other architectural members. 

It also served for pavements, and for the construction or lining of cisterns and aqueducts. Among its adaptations to religious purposes may be noticed the statues of the gods which stood in the temples, besides copies of them on a reduced scale, and an immense number of small votive figures. 

It also supplied the more trivial wants of every-day life, and served to make studs for the dress, bases for spindles, tickets for the amphitheatres, and prizes for victors in the games. 

Of it were made the vats or casks in which wine was made, preserved or exported, the pitchers in which it was served, and the cup out of which it was drunk, as well as all the various culinary and domestic utensils for which earthenware is used in modern times. 

It furnished the material for many small ornaments, especially figures, which are often of a comic nature, and supplied the undertaker with bas-reliefs, vases, imitative jewelry, and the other furniture of the tomb”.

The Roman knowledge of pottery spread with their conquests, and fine examples of Roman brick and tiles are to be found in Germany, Spain, France, and England.

The knowledge of the art of pottery probably at no time became entirely extinct in the East; but after the 4th century, in sympathy with the decline of all other arts, and the dying Roman civilization, the knowledge of this art gradually expired and was lost in Western Europe. 

The Romans made brick so extensively in Germany and in England, that it seems strange that such an art when once acquired should have been lost. Nevertheless, in the remains of buildings between the Roman times and the 13th century, there is no evidence of brick having been made in England.

During the darkness of the middle ages the art would probably have been entirely lost but for the monks, the great conservators of the arts and sciences during the middle ages, to whom we owe so much.

THE RENAISSANCE.

Pottery was made at Majorca by the Moors about the 12th century, and was . introduced by them into Spain, when a little later they became, for a time, masters of that country. They also seem to have had knowledge of the art of making enameled ornamental tiles. 

It is said that the people of Pisa also introduced Moorish tiles for church decoration about the 12th century, at which time the making of terra-cotta began to revive for architectural work in Italy. 

During the 14th century, the manufacture of terra-cotta was carried on at Venice by the guilds of the Boccaleri and Scudeleri (or picture and plate makers), in whom the exclusive privilege of manufacture was vested.

In the 14th, and more especially in the 15th century, terra-cotta was adapted in various parts of Europe to the most magnificent and elaborate architectural purposes. 

In northern Italy this use of terra-cotta was carried to a very high point of perfection. The western facade of the Cathedral of Monza is a work of the most wonderful richness and minute elaboration, wholly executed in clay, in the latter part of the 14th century. 

The Cathedral of Crema, the communal buildings of Piacenza, and S. Maria delle Grazie in Milan, are striking examples of the extreme splendor of effect that can be attained by terra-cotta work. 

The Certosa, near Pavia, has a most gorgeous specimen of the early part of the 16th century: the two cloisters are especially magnificent. Pavia itself is very rich in Terra cotta decoration, especially the ducal palaces and the churches of S. Francesco and S. Maria del Carmine. Some delicate work exists among the medieval buildings of Rome, dating from the 14th and 16th century, as, for example, the rich cornices on the south aisle of S. Maria in Ara Cceli (1300); the front of S. Cosimato, in Trastevere, built 1490; and a once very magnificent house, near the Via di Tardinone, which dates from the 14th century.

To this period date the productions of that most famous of all workers in clay, Luca della Robbia. No sculptured work of the great 15th century ever surpassed the Singing Gallery made by him for the Cathedral of Florence, somewhere between 1430 and 1440. The works of Luca della Robbia, while not strictly terra-cottas, in the modern acceptation of the term, are among the most valuable examples of the use of burned clay in architectural decoration. 

From the time of Luca della Robbia, ceramic ornaments invariably entered into designs for buildings. It was then that the art of terra-cotta most flourished, and it is from the productions of this period that most of the inspiration of modern designs has been drawn, especially in those structures erected prior to the middle of the present century.

West of the Alps, clay was not so much used for building or decorative purposes. Nevertheless, in the south of France, in Toulouse, remarkable examples exist. On the Rhone, carved tiles are to be found in very elaborate cornices and balustrades. In the north of Germany, in Brandenburg, Luneberg, Hanover, and the provinces on the Baltic, brick and ornamental terra-cottas were largely used in preference to stone, not only for exterior work, but also for the interior of churches, halls, and private dwellings, even the lofty piers of the cathedrals being moulded in clay.

The mark of Brandenburg is especially rich in terra-cotta work. 

The Church of St. Catherine, in the town of Brandenburg, is decorated in the most lavish way with delicate tracery and elaborate string courses, and cornices enriched with foliage, all modelled in clay. The Town Hall is another instance of the same use of terra-cotta.

At Tangermtinde, the Church of St. Stephen and other buildings of the beginning of the 15th century are wonderful examples of this method of decoration: the north door of St. Stephen’s especially is a masterpiece of rich and effective moulding.

In England, from the time of the downfall of the Romans until about the 13th century, there are few evidences of brick or terra-cotta work being used in important buildings, except such bricks as were taken from the ruins of the ancient Roman works, as at St. Alban’s Abbey and other places, and it does not appear that brick became again a favorite material for public works until about the 14th century. One of the earliest specimens in existence is to be found in Little Wenham Hall, Suffolk, supposed to have been built about the year 1260.

ADVANTAGES OF TERRA-COTTA.

Foremost among the advantages of terra-cotta as a building material, may be mentioned the facility it affords to architects to see the actual full sized details of the more ornamental portions of their designs, before the work is burned, as where no repetition is intended, no moulds are used, and the work which is afterwards to be burned and take its place in the building, is the model itself. It thus bears the impress at once of the mind of the designer, and the skill and knowledge of the modeling artist. It can be studied, improved, or modified, and when entirely satisfactory, burnt. It is, therefore, a far better reflex of the personality of the architect than can possibly be the case in any other building material.

There is another fact which should perhaps be pointed out with reference to terra-cotta in this connection, that is, that it must always remain a material in itself—it should never be regarded as a rival to stone. Terra-cotta may not compare with masonry in accuracy of lines, but with it you can produce the most beautiful surface, the most charming variety of tints, and the most brilliant effects of light and shade. There is no other material which affords such scope for the genius of the designer, no material which can be so readily impressed with the conception of the artist, as “Clay in the hand of the potter.” No process in any handicraft is so beautiful as that of the modeller in clay. The ease with which the plastic clay answers to the touch of the hand, taking a whole succession of symmetrical shapes, and seemingly, as it were, instinct with the life and thought of the modeller, makes the art beautiful and striking beyond all others, in which the desired form can only be attained by comparatively slow and laborious methods.

The first question which suggests itself to architects and builders in the consideration of terra-cotta as a building material is its durability. It is quite natural to compare terra-cotta in this respect to stone. The question as to whether terra-cotta may be ranked with stone in point of durability may be unhesitatingly answered in the affirmative.

The fact that burnt clay of a good quality is almost indestructible is proved by the remnants of bricks and tablets discovered by Layard and Rawlinson in the ruins of Babylon, in an almost perfect state of preservation. 

A small statuette, taken from the ruins of ancient Thebes, which is believed to be not less than thirty-three hundred years old, is covered with hieroglyphics as sharp and as perfect in outlines and in detail as the day it was carved and burnt. We have many modern illustrations also, in the magnificent old brick and terra-cotta structures still to be met with in different parts of England and the Continent, affording, under the most trying conditions of climate, valuable evidences of the durable nature of terra cotta.

One of the choicest specimens of ancient terracotta in existence is exhibited in the South Kensington Museum in London. This is a medallion, eleven feet in diameter, bearing the arms of King Rene of Anjou, surrounded by a massive border of fruit and foliage, and is supposed to have been made in the year 1453. It was exposed to the action of the weather for more than 400 years, fixed in the front wall of a villa near Florence.

 Another fine example is to be found in the Church of San Gottardo in Milan. During five centuries the tower of this church has braved the inclemencies of the seasons, without noticeable traces of decay appearing in the terra-cotta work, which is most elaborately carved and of delicate workmanship. A close inspection of this tower also reveals the interesting fact that the architect, mistrusting, perhaps, the resisting power of terra-cotta against the stress of weather, took care to furnish the windows with quoins of stone as a protection— vain precaution, as it is the stone work which has suffered from the assaults of time, and not the terra-cotta.

Coats of arms of terra-cotta, inserted in the walls of Hampton Court Palace, which have been exposed for three centuries and a half to an English climate, are practically unharmed by the action of the weather, while the brick and stone, and almost every other material used in the construction of the palace, is more or less worn and decayed.