It is easy to see the appeal of Venetian plaster; whether you are looking for a beautiful neoclassical style, a distinctive industrial look or a modernist accent, polished plaster provides the versatile marblesque style that fits so many different trends and aesthetics.
The name itself comes courtesy of Carlo Scarpa, a 20th-century Venetian architect who revived the design style in the 1950s as part of a revival of neoclassical architecture. Before that, other Venetian artists such as Palladio were also credited with its revival.
However, whilst polished plaster has adopted the name of Mr Scarpa’s hometown, polished plaster was first established 340 miles south of Venice in the ancient city of Pompeii, where its beauty and versatility led to it becoming known as a great work.
The Great Plasterwork
The method for producing Venetian plaster was first described in De Architectura, The Ten Books of Architecture written by Vitruvius in 30-20 BC.
The first architect to write about Roman manufacturing techniques, Vitruvius extensively wrote about what was known as lime plaster, documenting the process and helping to aid its revival.
However, the legend of Roman polished plaster can be credited to Pliny the Elder and his Natural History, which further covered the production of smooth marble and established the name that the Romans called it.
Before it was known as polished plaster or Venetian plaster, it was known as Marmoratum Opus, which translated to smooth marble, but had the implication of a great work. Opus translates to a work of art, and even during the era of the Roman Empire implied a great work.
Plaster and concrete during that era had an almost mythical reputation that has lasted to this day, due to the rather incredible longevity of many works that were made using Roman polished plaster.
The most famous of these by a significant margin is the Pantheon, which was made in 27 BC, significantly rebuilt in 118 AD and has remained remarkably intact ever since.
Until the era of metal-reinforced concrete, it was the largest dome in the world, and even today it is the largest unreinforced concrete dome in human history, which is credited to the mixing methods that brought the world polished plaster.
It was a remarkably innovative material during Roman times, one that took over a thousand years to be rediscovered outside of the Byzantine Empire.
A lot of Roman literature, art and architectural techniques were lost until the Renaissance when there was a distinct and profound interest in the techniques of the past.
Naturally Roman concrete that had the appearance of stone and even marble is going to pique the interest of an artistic tradition that considered Roman works as the highest possible echelon of human achievement up to that point, and “Marmoratum Opus” was no exception.
As it happened, Andrea Palladio of Venice was one of the first to see the beauty in the technique after the Fall of Rome, calling it “Pietra d’Istria” but also inadvertently coining the name for which the beautiful plasterwork technique is known today.
