terra-cotta, literally, any kind of fired clay but, in general usage, a kind of object—e.g., vessel, figure, or structural form—made from fairly coarse, porous clay that when fired assumes a colour ranging from dull ochre to red and usually is left unglazed. Most terra-cotta has been of a utilitarian kind because of its cheapness, versatility, and durability. Limitations in the basic materials often cause a superficial similarity between simply made works as far separated by time and distance as early Greece and the modern cultures of Latin America.

Throughout the ancient world, one of the most common uses of terra-cotta was for building-brick, roof tiles, and sarcophagi, the last often decorated with paintings. Small terra-cotta figures from the Early Bronze Age, as early as 3000 BCE, have been found in Greece, and larger objects dating from the 7th century BCE have also been found. Greek artists carried the craft to Etruria, whence both Etruscan and Greek sculptors moved to work in Rome. Most Greek terra-cotta statuary, more common than once thought, was used to decorate temples. The modeled Etruscan statues, at times very Greek in style but often with a gayer or fiercer flavour, were admired widely in antiquity. Figures on Etruscan sarcophagi often were of terra-cotta. Few Roman terra-cotta statues have been found.

Molded statuettes 6 to 7 inches (15 to 18 cm) in height are common throughout the ancient world, among them very early primitive figures from Cyprus and painted, glazed human figures from Minoan Crete. The Cypriot figures often comprise groups of dancers or warriors, and the Cretan feature lively poses of women, horsemen, or animals. After the 7th century BCE, styles became less hieratic, the subjects more mundane—e.g., a nurse with child, a teacher and pupils, an actor in costume. The Tanagra figurines, found in Tanagra in central Greece (Boeotia), are the best known of this kind. In the Hellenistic period, from the 4th century BCE, centres of statuette production moved to Asia Minor and westward, being found throughout the Roman Empire as far as Britain. Styles in the East became more ornate and influenced by Oriental values in design and subject.

Architectural relief, especially where wood or clay was used for building, used floral or more abstract designs and such figured representations as chariot races or animal or female heads; examples have been found in Asia Minor, Greece, and Etruscanized southern Italy. Votive reliefs also were common, notably those of the local divinities and heroes rendered broadly and smoothly in Tarentum (Taranto), southern Italy, and the small, meticulous reliefs of local cults found at Locris in central Greece. The fine 5th-century reliefs from the island of Melos, in which mythological scenes predominate, decorated chests. Much Roman architecture is decorated with relief themes from mythology, especially of Dionysus and his revellers.

The use of terra-cotta for all purposes virtually died out between the end of the Roman Empire and the 14th century. In 15th-century Italy and Germany it appeared again, either molded or carved, and in its natural colour as friezes, moldings, or inset medallions decorating buildings. A new use of terra-cotta was in the highly glazed and coloured sculpture introduced in Florence early in the 15th century by the Della Robbia family. The effect, adding a freshness of accent especially to marble and stone, was imitated widely, and the use of terra-cotta, glazed or unglazed, spread throughout Europe. Free sculpture in terra-cotta also was revived in the 15th century by such artists as Donatello, Verrocchio, and especially Guido Mazzoni and Antonio Begarelli working in Modena; often it was painted in natural colours or to imitate marble or bronze.

During the following centuries, most terra-cotta figures were executed as preliminary studies, though the works of such 18th-century French artists as Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne and Jean-Antoine Houdon display a personal immediacy of subject that is not transferable to the harder material. In the same period, such pottery centres as Sèvres in France introduced finely wrought small groups with allegorical and mythological themes. Terra-cotta was used both architecturally and for figures during the 19th century, but its modern revival dates from the 20th century, when both potters and architects again became interested in the aesthetic properties of the material.