Temple of Minerva

Temple of Minerva (Veii, near Rome, Italy) and sculpture of Apollo. Master sculptor Vulca. c. 510–500 B.C.E. Original temple of wood, mud brick, or tufa (volcanic rock); terra cotta sculpture.

• Around 600 B.C.E., however, the desire to create monumental structures for the gods spread throughout Etruria, most likely as a result of Greek influence. While the desire to create temples for the gods may have been inspired by contact with Greek culture, Etruscan religious architecture was markedly different in material and design. These colorful and ornate structures typically had stone foundations; wood, mud-brick and terracotta 
• Vitruvius’s description of a floor plan with proportions that are 5:6
• The temple is also roughly divided into two parts—a deep front porch with widely-spaced Tuscan columns and a back portion divided into three separate rooms.
• In addition to their internal organization and materials, what also made Etruscan temples noticeably distinct from Greek ones was a high podium and frontal entrance. 
• abundant terracotta sculpture that still remains, the volume and quality
• In addition to many terracotta architectural elements (masks, antefixes, decorative details), a series of over life-size terracotta sculptures have also been discovered in association with the temple. 
• these figures seem to be Etruscan assimilations of Greek gods
• The most famous and well-preserved of these is the Aplu (Apollo) of Veii, a dynamic, striding masterpiece of large scale terracotta sculpture and likely a central figure in the rooftop narrative.
• TWISTING OF HIPS
• SHOULDERS ROUND, BROAD
• UNNATURAL DEPICTION OF THE BODY
• DETAIL, DRAPERY