Journal of Architectural Conservation
Volume 17, Issue 3, November 2011
Plaster, Stucco and Stuccoes
Claire Gapper and Jeff Orton
Paper Summary
This paper explores the reasons why a traditional conservation plasterer, on the one hand, and an architectural historian, on the other, find it difficult to use the technical vocabulary available to convey precisely their meanings when discussing historic plasterwork. Plaster is now a generic term but in a conservation context it always has to be qualified to make clear whether lime or gypsum plaster is intended. Stucco is even more confusing because at different dates and in different countries it has meant a plaster mix, decorative plasterwork using that mix, low-relief decorative plasterwork, high-relief figurative plasterwork and renders, both internal and external. The history of these various usages will be explored and the question raised whether ‘stucco’ is a term that should now be consigned to the past.
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Figure 1 Detail of cherubs modelled by Italian plasterworkers in the Galerie Francois Ier at Fontainebleau.
Figure 2 The figure of (a) Odoratus, the sense of smell, one of the Five Senses from the ceiling of the great chamber at Boston Manor House, Brentford.
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Claire Gapper, Ph.D., F.S.A.
Claire Gapper studied architectural history at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She completed her Ph.D. thesis on the subject of plasterwork in the Tudor and early Stuart periods, and has continued to research, publish and lecture on this topic. She has written reports on historic plasterwork for English Heritage and the National Trust, among others. An updated version of her thesis, now entitled ‘Decorative Plasterwork in City, Court and Country 1530-1660’, is freely available at www.clairegapper.info. The first chapter is devoted to materials and their uses.
Jeff Orton, C.R.P., A.P.C., M.P.C.G.
Jeff Orton is a master plasterer/stuccoist and consultant who has been involved in repairing and reinstating traditional plasterwork in historic buildings for English Heritage, The National Trust and private clients. A freeman of the Worshipful Company of Plaisterers and an Associate of the Plaisterers’ Company, he is committed to encouraging a better understanding of traditional plastering skills through lectures, demonstrations and training.
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