From the USF Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx) Collection

Description: Maenad (?): A painted, mold-made terracotta roof fixture (antefix) in the shape of a woman’s bust. Her oval face is brightened by the archaic smile, the slight upward curve of the mouth. She wears a head cloth under a decorated conical hat (tutulus) and a necklace with acorn-shaped pendants (bullae). The raised hem of her tunic (palla) is marked in molded relief. Adopted from Greco-Roman architecture, variously shaped antefixes were used on Etruscan temples to conceal the joints of the roof tiles at the eaves. Like the korē-figure, the identity of this head remains unclear, but may portray a maenad, a follower of the wine god Fufluns-Pacha (Dionysus or Bacchus).

Terracotta sculpture; Aquae Salviae, Latium, Italy; Archaic period, ca. 525-475 BCE

Tampa Museum of Art, Gift of Aaron and Karie Bennett, 2024.477

3D digitized with the Artec Spider and processed in Artec Studio Professional