Venetian Plaster history

Venetian Plaster history

Venetian stuccowork origins date back to more than five thousands years ago. It seems that architectural plasters were born in the eastern areas of Iran and thereon spreaded trough Mesopotamia.

Excavations on Malta island in the Tarxien complex brought to the light remains of plasters and decorations coming from a period dated from 3000 to 2500 B.C..

In 2000 B.C. witnesses of the use of plaster instead of the common baked clay and, as lime paste, instead of bitumen to attach the bricks to the vaults, could be found in the Elamitic people (populations coming from southern Iran, at the boundary with Mesopotamia, who outclassed since III millennium, influencing sumerian civilization, widely spreaded overall Mesopotamia, originating common Gods and writings).

Usage of stuccowork come from East to West and then probably again from West to East, after receiving influence from population at that time governing over known geographical areas.

It is necessary to remind that stuccowork art has never been an exclusively spiritual art well differentiating from daily life of population that were using it. Stucco work had a very practical utilization, during the usual building yard work of that time period, it was a from father to son handed on art, practice and know-how. It was a practice fit to receive other cultures' influence, this cultures put in their realization, their tastes, their design style, colors, representations and so on. For sure the mixture could have undergone some changes, depending on raw material available in that geographic area, and on coloring pigments; but both application characteristic and original mixture concept (lime stone base with stone or marble powder) remained the same.