Scagliola

Description

An imitation marble or granite made from pigmented plaster. Scagliola was developed in the 16th century in Italy. It is made from a mixture of plaster, pigment, marble dust, and glue that is painted over gesso then heated. Scagliola was used for table tops, ornamental panels, and columns (Rowland and Riley 1981). It is softer than true marble and scratches easily.

Synonyms and Related Terms

marmorino

Additional Information

T.Rowland, N.Riley, A-Z Guide to Cleaning, Conserving and Repairing Antiques, Constable and Co., Ltd., London, 1981

Authority

• Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)

• Tom Rowland, Noel Riley, A-Z Guide to Cleaning, Conserving and Repairing Antiques, Constable and Co., Ltd., London, 1981

• Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000