Terracotta

Terra-cotta (Italian "baked earth") properly denotes any object made of baked clay, but in this country the term does not include pottery, but is used only of statuettes, busts, and similar objects, and of the more ornamental clay-work in architecture. Its colour is commonly buff, but sometimes yellow or red. Some of the finest works of classical art and many beautiful products of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance were wrought in terra-cotta. It is now much used in the facades of public buildings.