Campana relief

Campana reliefs (also Campana tiles) are Ancient Roman terracotta reliefs made from the middle of the first century BC until the first half of the second century AD. They are named after the Italian collector Giampietro Campana, who first published these reliefs (1842).

The reliefs were used as friezes at the top of a wall below the roof, and in other exterior locations, such as ridge tiles and antefixes, but also as decoration of interiors, typically with a number of sections forming a horizontal frieze. They were produced in unknown quantities of copies from moulds and served as decoration for temples as well as public and private buildings, as cheaper imitations of carved stone friezes. They originated in the terracotta tiled roofs of the Etruscan temples. A wide variety of motifs from mythology and religion featured on the reliefs as well as images of everyday Roman life, landscapes and ornamental themes. Originally they were painted in colour, of which only traces of this occasionally remain. They were mainly produced in the region of Latium around the city of Rome, and their use was also largely limited to this area. Five distinct types were produced. Today examples are found in almost all major museums of Roman art worldwide.

With intensified excavation in the Mediterranean in the nineteenth century, terracotta reliefs increasingly came to light in and around Rome, from which original architectural contexts were determined. Metal and marble objects had previously been the most sought by excavators, scholars and collectors, but at this time artefacts in other materials received wider interest, beginning with the late-18th century appreciation of Greek vases which when they first appeared were thought to represent Etruscan pottery.

The first collector to make the tiles items of interest was marchese Giampietro Campana. His influence and contemporary reputation in archaeology was so great that he was named an honorary member of the Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica. He published his collection in 1842 in Antiche opere in plastica ("Ancient works in plastic arts"), in which his findings on the reliefs were first laid out in a scholarly fashion. Thus the tiles became known as Campana reliefs. Afterwards Campana was sentenced to imprisonment for embezzlement: in 1858 he lost his honorary membership in the Istituto di corrispondenza archeologica and his collection was pawned and sold. The terracotta reliefs owned by him are now in the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London and the Hermitage in St Petersburg.

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