Butades

Butades of Sicyon (Ancient Greek: Βουτάδης Boutades), sometimes mistakenly called Dibutades, was the reputed inventor of the art of modelling clay in relief.

The story, as recorded by Pliny the Elder, is that his daughter, Kora of Sicyon, was smitten with love for a youth at Corinth where they lived.

This model was preserved in the Nymphaeum in Corinth until Lucius Mummius sacked that city in 146 BC.

Because of this occurrence, Butades began a practice that is supported by a large body of existing evidence: he began to decorate the ends or edges of rain gutter roof tiles with masks of human faces, first in low relief (protypa), then in high relief (ectypa).

[2] Pliny adds Hine et fastigia templorum orta, that is, the terra-cotta figures which Butades was said to have invented, were used to ornament the pediments of temples.