Stucco and Decorative Plasterwork in Europe

🔖 Some of the most exhilarating works of European art are the products of the stuccoist's skill. Not only the wonders of Vierzehnheiligen and Die Wies, the Amalienburg, and the Weissersaal in the Wurzburg Residenz, but a multitude of less well-known achievements are celebrated in this, the first overall study of stucco and decorative plasterwork throughout Europe. Geoffrey Beard traces stucco decoration from its classical beginnings to its rediscovery in the Renaissance, from its miraculous flowering in Baroque and Rococo forms to its harmonious application in the Adam style, and from its use for soaring Gothic-Revival ornament to its last flickers of vitality in Art Nouveau. Stucco and plasterwork, though little documented, have been an essential part of the interior decoration of great houses and churches, and the range of expression is wide - from embellishments of purest delight in princely places to sacred drama of moving intensity in churches like those decorated by the Asam brothers. The author shows how techniques and styles were carried across Europe by itinerant artists and craftsmen, and how they gained new inflexions in their countries of adoption - in France, Austria and Germany, in the British Isles, and in the Scandinavian countries and Eastern Europe. The craft of the stuccoist, his medium and tools, the sources of his designs, his training and his role in the decorative team, are all fully described, and the book also includes an invaluable dictionary of stucco...