Plaster is one of the world’s first and most enduring building materials, with a versatility and longevity that has meant that some examples of well-made plasterwork have survived thousands of years.
There has been a revival of marble plaster styles in recent years, as people clamour to add beautifully polished stonework to their homes without the incredible expense and practical considerations of using solid marble.
This has been the case since Ancient Rome, but a revival of this idea mixed with more advanced finishes and intricate craftsmanship led to a design movement that dominated Europe for over a century and changed how we look at historic buildings.
Scagliola And The Revival Of Rome
Much like other forms of artistic plasterwork, the core components of scagliola are the same as other forms of gypsum plaster, only with the addition of materials of varying pigments to create the unique marble-like finishes that made it famous.
Whilst at one point it was described as a more modern ersatz form of marble, this is somewhat ahistorical as Roman writers and architects such as Vitruvius would write about materials such as scagliola and terrazzo.
However, it would start to become popular in the late 16th and early 17th century, with Prince Wilhelm’s Chapel in Munich being one of the first documented examples of scagliola being used as a primary part of a room’s construction.
The Renaissance had led to a revival of Roman philosophy, Roman artistic styles and Roman architectural flourishes such as the use of marble columns.
However, the marble itself was exceptionally expensive, heavy and limiting in the types of structures you could make with it because of its weight and expense.
Instead, skilful specialists who had rediscovered the technique could not only replicate fine marble but take advantage of plaster’s inherent properties to make some truly mesmerising designs and patterns.
This design style was at the forefront of the Baroque movement of architecture, and spread throughout the continent, reaching the UK by the 17th century with the technique being used in the Queen’s Closet of Ham House, Surrey.
During the English Regency period, it was seen as an exemplar of luxurious extravagance and would be part of the scarlet and lapis lazuli-styled designs seen in Buckingham Palace.
However, the huge popularity of scagliola would not last, as scagliola would be caught in the middle of a major historical heritage debate.
From Ersatz To Heritage
Whilst scagliola and other ornate plasterwork are rightfully seen now as highly skilled craftsmanship, in the late 19th century it was the victim of a conflict between two different approaches to preservation.
With heritage movements beginning to gain momentum, scagliola had become less of an artisanal skill and more of an industrial process, hampering the quality of early 20th-century artificial marble, which made it a target of criticism.
Add to this the popularity of the similar material terrazzo and it would take until a revival movement starting in the 1970s for scagliola to be revived and rightfully seen as a heritage craft.
