Terracotta

Terracotta ( terra cotta for Italian, burnt earth ') is the name for unglazed ceramic products or products in the group crockery. Terracotta can also naturally warm, earthy reddish hue to denote that is typical of this pottery.

• 2.1 Antiquity and Middle Ages
• 2.2 19th century
• 2.3 Modern

Material

- Terracotta Terracotta also

Terracotta is made from iron- red, but also of calcareous yellowish tone. The mineral composition of clays and their mixtures and admixtures ( temper ) determines the characteristics of high-quality terracotta. The pieces have the typical terracotta color and good durability, are waterproof and resistant to frost.

Production

Since only a single firing and relatively low temperatures (900-1000 ° C) are required, the manufacturing is not complicated. The material is one of the oldest materials of cultural history. It comes in large amounts, is easy to machine and was therefore already in antiquity widespread application. Later flowering times were the Renaissance and the 19th century.

Impruneta

With particularly high temperatures burned terracotta, whose raw material comes from a specific clay deposits in the town of Impruneta, a material that contains particularly high levels of minerals, aluminum, copper and iron oxides, Impruneta is called. This stands in contrast to Siena terracotta by particularly high frost resistance of, but is significantly more expensive. Not infrequently, therefore, mixtures as alleged " Impruneta " terracotta offered.

Historical Significance

Antiquity and Middle Ages

Even in prehistoric times are small items to find in the Minoan culture then already numerous human and animal figurines. The Greek terracotta small sculpture of classical antiquity high quality achieved in the representation of animals, humans and deities, powerful workshops existed in many places in the Mediterranean. Since the 5th century BC figures using one or more hollow shapes were mass-produced. On various occasions also large sculptures and sarcophagi emerged in this technique. Both in Greece and in Italy Terracotta has been applied to structures as tiles ( here especially for relief- decorated or painted face brick), as a material for friezes, for Gable Decorations and cladding panels in Etruscan temples and as a relief panels in Roman villas ( Campanareliefs ). In the 15th century Renaissance artists such as Donatello and Luca della Robbia often created significant works of painted terracotta.

19th century

In the 19th century the old technology was re-estimated and applied reinforced. Impetus came from the widespread preference for classical antiquity since the second half of the 18th century and by the mechanization of work processes in crafts and architecture that came from England. In the now occurring tension between individual and mass-produced terracotta pieces seemed to many artists and artisans as a suitable material. This development is briefly described using the example of Berlin- Brandenburg.

The Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel developed the guiding principles for his work from various historical ideas (medieval brick shell, Renaissance ceramics) and from a personal preference for natural, solid material. In the economically critical time after the wars of liberation, he created a reasonably simple but aesthetically pleasing brick architecture with decorative elements of terracotta. The extensive construction activity Schinkel and his students ( Stiller, Persius, Soller, and others) supported the development of highly skilled pottery workshops in Berlin, who were in a position to meet the growing qualitative and quantitative requirements. A prime example of the buildings thus created was Schinkel's famous School of Architecture, modestly decorated with a number of excellent terracotta reliefs on the history of architecture.

Friedrich Wilhelm IV, a committed owner, promoted the use of terracotta. Between 1830 and 1860 the Prussian royal house terracottas acquired for ten projects in the park of Sanssouci, in order to emphasize the southern character of the cultural landscape.

In Potsdam 1850/51 was based on sketches of the king a fully clad with terracotta tiles triumphal arch with allegorical representations, a novelty in the Prussian architecture.

Modern

Even in the presence of terracotta has importance, mainly as construction and utility ceramics. Offers include large format ceramic elements for facade constructions, tiles of various shapes and colors for use in the house and outside, mosaic mats, but also sinks, vases and pots. One of the most famous building with a terracotta façade, for example, the Flatiron Building in New York City.