More Art Zones
|
Number Etched into a Plaster Wall Photographic Print 24 in. x 18 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed Mounted Plastering or stucco is one of the most ancient crafts connected with building. The Egyptian Pyramids contain plasterwork dating from c. 2000 B.C. used as a ground for decorative painting. Great use was made of the medium by the Aegean civilisations. The Cretans used an exquisitely thin, fine and white lime stucco as a basis for murals; and where they were not built of marble, the Greeks covered their temples both internally and externally with plaster. Very often decorative ornament was painted on this stucco. From a description by Pausanias of the Temple of the Stymphalides (c. 400 B.C.), which had a ceiling ornamented with panels and figures of harpies, it appears that the Greeks used stucco for modelling.
In his work on architecture written c. 16 B.C., Vitruvius describes the methods used by the Romans for plasterwork, and stucco seems to have been used profusely at Pompeii.
The Byzantines did not employ plaster and for more than 1000 years all relics of ornamental stucco work in the Empire were gradually forgotten. But the removal of the capital to Byzantium spread the art of plaster to the Near East where it was enriched with an oriental extravagance the results of which were brought back to Europe in the early part of the 13th century by the Moors, who were responsible for the magnificent plasterwork of the Alhambra.
During the Early Middle Ages plastering existed in Europe only as a craft, its highest function being to furnish a painting surface. Not until the time of the Renaissance in Italy was there any sign of the revival of stucco work as an art. Donatello sometimes modelled in stucco (e. g., a group of the 'Entombment' over the sacristy door in the church of S. Antonio at Padua and medallions of the four Evangelists in the sacristy of S. Lorenzo, Florence.) Andrea Verrocchio founded the art of piece moulding in Venice and perfected the craft of plaster casting, making possible the reproduction of the work of Antiquity, and thus greatly stimulating original ornamental plasterwork.
In 1515 Raphael was appointed director and inspector of the search for the buried remains of Ancient Rome. He and his assistant, Giovanni da Udine, were astonished by the discovery of abundant modelled stucco ornaments, still dazzling white. Udine analysed the composition of this Roman stucco and at once it became the most popular form of decoration. Raphael designed the arabesque plasterwork ornament for the Loggia of the Vatican and for the Villa Madama, which after his death were completed by Giulio Romano, Giov. Francesco Penni and Udine. On the sack of Rome by the French in 1527, Udine fled to Florence where he founded a school of stuccoists. They were responsible for the ceilings of the Pitti Palace and the interesting external work on the pillars of the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio. It was in southern Italy in the next century, however, that the Italians produced their finest stucco work.
Giulio Romano went in 1524 to Mantua where he established an important school of plasterers who later influenced all Western Europe. Primaticcio was sent at the request of Francis I from Mantua to supervise the decorations at Fontainebleau. The noble figure work they executed together with swags of fruit and flowers established a canon for the French sculptors, Goujon, Pillon and their followers. Meanwhile Italian stuccoists had come also to England to work for Henry VIII, amongst them Luca and Bartholomew Penni. The art of the plasterer, or pargeter as he was then called, was considered of such importance in England before the advent of the Italians that in 1501 Henry VII had formed them into a separate guild. Little use, however, had been made of ornamental work before that date.
The English plasterers soon learned and practised Italian methods but they did not attempt to emulate the compositions and designs of the foreigners; instead, they evolved an indigenous type of decoration based on the familiar groining which had strengthened and adorned the stone roofs of the Middle Ages. Curvilinear and knotted forms succeeded the geometric arrangements, and scrollwork of large dimensions became popular. The plasterer soon considered the ceiling too small in scope for his rapidly developing art; he encroached upon the walls and a deep frieze crowded with relief figures and ornament soon filled the space between wainscot and main cornice, as at Aston Hall. Exernal walls were covered with pargetry and magnificent examples survive. Some fine work was executed during the early years of the 17th century, among which may be mentioned the rich designs of the ceilings at Audley End.
The closer acquaintance with Italian Renaissance architecture which developed under Charles I produced ceilings of a plainer character. Wide compartments were adopted and ornament was concentrated into modelled bands and scrolls as at Coleshill.
When Wren visited Paris in 1665, he specially noticed the plasterwork carried out by van Ostel and Arnoldino. Wren's influence was important for the revival of the art during the reign of Charles II after a partial eclipse under the Protector. Floral motifs now became popular, and it became fashionable, following French example, to leave the main field of the ceiling plain and to drive the ornament into the corners and centre. Cast plaster now came to be frequently introduced, much to the detriment of the plasterer's art. Design was further divorced from craft by the habit of bringing out books of designs for plasterers composed by those who knew nothing of the art.
The interest of the mid- 18th century in Classical Antiquity and its remains was of impbrtance in the formation of the style of plasterwork cultivated by the Adam brothers. It had charm but very little work was left for the true artist in plaster. He had only to cast models designed by another artist and to produce monotonously repeating ornaments. Thus Classical Antiquity, which had fostered the art of stucco during the Renaissance, led two centuries later to its decline.
|
 |
RSS Feed XML Sitemap HTML Sitemap Contact Us Privacy Policy