Vatican Museums

This area is dedicated to Etruscan architectural and votive terracotta works. At the end of the staircase, a roof reconstructed with antefixes from Cerveteri welcomes the visitor to Room V, which also functions as a vestibule for the subsequent Gold Rooms (VII-VIII).
The layout of the large space in Room VI is intended to evoke a space similar to ancient sacred areas, where a perimeter wall (temenos) enclosed the high podium on which the temple was erected, with an adjacent square populated with votive offerings and altars for performing religious ceremonies. The temple is suggested by the reconstruction of a tympanum with high-reliefs in polychrome terracotta, from a sacred building in Tivoli.
The votive offerings in terracotta come from one or more votive deposits from Caere (Cerveteri), which have provided hundreds of specimens, dating mostly from the late fourth – early third century B.C. In this case they are primarily anatomic votives or reproductions of sacrificial foodstuffs and animals, produced in series using moulds, but even statues are represented. Works of higher quality, produced directly and recalling late classical Greek and Hellenistic art are also present, even including portraits.
It is also possible to admire numerous architectural works in terracotta, of varied provenance, some of which are positioned on reconstructions indicating the part of the roof that they decorated in ancient times.