Stucco Reliefs of the Italian Renaissance, Technè magazine, issue 51, 2021
NMR| N° d'inventaire | 25314 |
| Format | 22 x 28 |
| Détails | 157 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2021 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782111528352 |
Taking a fresh look at serial plaster productions and revealing to a wide audience the richness of these often disdained works, such are the challenges of the thematic dossier of this issue 51 of Technè, which deals with the models of the greatest masters of the Florentine Renaissance: Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Antonio Rossellino and Della Robbia.
After the issues devoted by the journal to enamelled terracotta (No. 20) and polychrome terracotta (No. 36), the reader will first find food for thought on the notion of serial works, of plural works, but also on the place of "stucco" among the materials available to artists of the Quattrocento. Was it only a poor and cheap material? Or was it the material of choice for disseminating the work of the masters faithfully restored and by the same token the spirit of the Renaissance as required by the cultural and religious changes in the society of the time?
This reader will also see that, to paraphrase Falconet's mischievous phrase from 1681, "plaster is a chatterbox that hides no secrets." This material carries within it, for those who know how to study its minerals, even the rarest, its precise chemical compositions, its microstructures, its organic constituents, a multitude of information on the recipes used, the origin of the raw materials, their preparation. So many clues that suggest the geographical location of certain workshops, or even their "technical signature."
This issue reveals above all, thanks to extensive restorations and in-depth analyses of the color, the unsuspected richness of an exceptional polychromy which individualizes and magnifies these reliefs and definitively rejects the hypothesis of second-rate productions.
The articles collected demonstrate the progress made in the technologies used to study these devotional reliefs, whether to probe the material, including with cutting-edge techniques used in biochemistry, or to compare more precisely using a 3D scanner the different examples of the same series, or even to understand the coloring without touching the work.
This deliberately multidisciplinary and international dossier is largely fueled by the ESPRIT program (Study of Polychrome Stuccos of the Italian Renaissance) led by the Louvre Museum and the C2RMF and marks the beginning of new research. The works described are gradually joining the museum walls. Now we will have to look at them with a new and informed eye!
Taking a fresh look at serial plaster productions and revealing to a wide audience the richness of these often disdained works, such are the challenges of the thematic dossier of this issue 51 of Technè, which deals with the models of the greatest masters of the Florentine Renaissance: Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Antonio Rossellino and Della Robbia.
After the issues devoted by the journal to enamelled terracotta (No. 20) and polychrome terracotta (No. 36), the reader will first find food for thought on the notion of serial works, of plural works, but also on the place of "stucco" among the materials available to artists of the Quattrocento. Was it only a poor and cheap material? Or was it the material of choice for disseminating the work of the masters faithfully restored and by the same token the spirit of the Renaissance as required by the cultural and religious changes in the society of the time?
This reader will also see that, to paraphrase Falconet's mischievous phrase from 1681, "plaster is a chatterbox that hides no secrets." This material carries within it, for those who know how to study its minerals, even the rarest, its precise chemical compositions, its microstructures, its organic constituents, a multitude of information on the recipes used, the origin of the raw materials, their preparation. So many clues that suggest the geographical location of certain workshops, or even their "technical signature."
This issue reveals above all, thanks to extensive restorations and in-depth analyses of the color, the unsuspected richness of an exceptional polychromy which individualizes and magnifies these reliefs and definitively rejects the hypothesis of second-rate productions.
The articles collected demonstrate the progress made in the technologies used to study these devotional reliefs, whether to probe the material, including with cutting-edge techniques used in biochemistry, or to compare more precisely using a 3D scanner the different examples of the same series, or even to understand the coloring without touching the work.
This deliberately multidisciplinary and international dossier is largely fueled by the ESPRIT program (Study of Polychrome Stuccos of the Italian Renaissance) led by the Louvre Museum and the C2RMF and marks the beginning of new research. The works described are gradually joining the museum walls. Now we will have to look at them with a new and informed eye!