The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 22, 2025

Antefix in the Form of a Maiden

late 500s–early 400s BCE

Etruscan

Painted terracotta
height: 21.9 cm (8 5/8 in.)
Gift of Barbara S. Robinson and Family 2024.56
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Much Etruscan architectural sculpture was molded terracotta rather than carved stone.

Description

Staring out with almond-shaped eyes and enigmatic smile, this brightly painted female head hides a rounded back made to serve an important function. She is a molded terracotta antefix, made to cap an open-ended roof tile along the sloping edge of a wooden building. Depending on the size of the structure it adorned, this antefix may have sat alongside dozens of others, likely all similar in form and painted decoration, and perhaps accompanied by additional polychrome architectural sculpture. Sometimes identified as maenads, the female followers of Dionysos (Etruscan Fufluns), such figures might also be nymphs or anonymous maidens.
  • Private US Collection
    -2004
    Antiquarium, Fine Ancient Arts Gallery, sold to Mrs. Barbara Robinson
    2004-2023
    Barbara Robinson, Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2023-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Antiquarium, Ltd. Myth and Majesty: Deities and Dignitaries of the Ancient World. New York, N.Y.: Antiquarium, 1992. cat. no. 40
  • {{cite web|title=Antefix in the Form of a Maiden|url=false|author=|year=late 500s–early 400s BCE|access-date=22 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2024.56