Stucco Reliefs Research Articles

Khosrow II (590–628 CE)

Khosrow II (r. 590–628 CE) was the last great Sasanian king who took the throne with the help of the Romans and broke with dynastic religious preferences as he became married to a Christian empress. It was under his rule that the Sasanian Empire reached its greatest expansion. From the standpoint of iconographic studies, Khosrow II is among the most influential Persian kings. Although he was literally occupied by rebels and wars within the borders of the Sasanian territories and beyond, Khosrow managed to create a powerful image of himself that emphasized the legitimacy of his monarchy. Indeed, Khosrow Parviz (the Victorious) drew upon royal iconography as a propaganda tool on a wide range of materials such as rock and stucco reliefs, coins, seals, and metal plates. His image (created both visually and verbally) not only revived the traditional iconography of the Persian kings but also evolved it in a way that transcended his time and was passed on to the early Islamic Caliphates after him. Khosrow II imitated and manipulated the traditional royal iconography of his predecessors in order to display his legitimacy, piety, and valor.

A Zoroastrian Cult Scene on Sasanian Stucco Reliefs at Bandiyān (Daregaz, Khorāsān-e Razavī)

A Zoroastrian Cult Scene on Sasanian Stucco Reliefs at Bandiyān (Daregaz, Khorāsān-e Razavī)

Geochemical and isotopic provenance determination of gypsum used for stucco artworks: application to Florentine stucco reliefs

Gypsiferous rocks of Tuscany and derived materials (i.e. alabaster, stucco and gesso) have been frequently used as sculptural materials. Remarkable examples are attested from the Renaissance Florence. At the junction of two ongoing programs, dealing respectively with the study of 15th century stucco reliefs (called Madonne di gesso) and the provenance of European alabasters used in artworks, an investigation on raw gypsum supply was conducted via a geological survey in the surroundings of Florence. Looking for geochemical provenance markers, a multi-analytical approach was carried out on 30 geo-referenced rock samples. In particular, trace elements, related both to gypsum and synsedimentary minerals, and gypsum multi isotopic fingerprints (S, O, Sr) were tested. The results obtained are discussed, disclosing insights in the geo-sourcing of raw materials used for stucco reliefs in Florentine workshops.

Retrieving the ancient colours: artistic practice as a tool for heritage reconstruction

The frieze of the Palace of the stuccoes, dated between the 5 th and 6 th century BC, was a polychrome Maya relief discovered in the 1907 in Yucatán, Mexico. It was documented in watercolours and hand tinted photographs by Adela Breton. After years of exposure to the harsh environmental conditions of the Maya area, the colours and the stucco relief disappeared. The aim of the project is to develop a hybrid digital-analogue printing method for reconstructing the appearance of the original polychrome relief based on digitised hand-made records.<br/> A description of the process to produce full colour images combining digital and photomechanical printing is provided. Using photopolymer plates, an intaglio printing process has been used to produce colour images, whilst inverse relief plates have been created based on height maps to transfer a positive embossing on paper when applying pressure on a printing press. The influence of physical parameters related to the appearance is studied. Reflectance Transformation Imaging was carried out to record the colour and surface shape of the prints. Measurements of gloss were made on relief inkjet prints and intaglio prints on paper to compare the outcomes of commercial 2.5D print and the method proposed here.<br/> By modifying an analogue process with digital technology, it is possible to incorporate ancient materials to the printmaking process and therefore approach naturally the appearance of the original. On the other hand, incorporating imaging techniques and quality measurements enables to improve the quality in analogue printing techniques.

Texture, Colour and Surface Appearance of the Cividale Stuccoes

The article discusses the material and aesthetic qualities of the female stucco saints in the Tempietto Longobardo at Cividale del Friuli (c. AD 750). The stuccoes combine two artistic and technical traditions: marble statuary of antique derivation and figural stucco relief. The surface texture of stucco differs considerably from that of marble: while marble is shiny, stucco tends to be dull. Since colours enhanced the visual impact of the saintly figures in the Tempietto, the polychromy – of which only very faint traces remain – was probably the most important aspect of the sculpture. It is a matter of speculation whether the viewer would have perceived any physical difference in surface appearance between the painted stucco and painted stone when seen from a distance. In order to gain an idea of the aesthetic impact of the reliefs when painted and perhaps gilded, the article presents hypothetical reconstructions of colour based on the wall paintings preserved in the Tempietto.

Investigation of organic additives in Italian Renaissance devotion stucco reliefs from French collections

Abstract A series of Italian Renaissance stucco artworks from Museum of Fine Arts of Strasbourg and Louvre Museum in Paris were investigated with the aim of revealing and characterizing possible organic additives. As the stucco and its additives are little known but, according to the literature, could be complex and contain many different matters, the methodology was first tuned on the laboratory models prepared with gypsum or gypsum/lime plaster with various quantities of organic matter: animal glue or gum Arabic. The methodology consisted of observation of the surfaces of sampled fragments by optical and electronic microscopy, preliminary investigation of the presence of organic compounds by infrared spectroscopy, then extraction of the organic matters from the samples, preparation, and analysis by gas chromatography. The adopted sample preparation scheme allows screening the substances from various classes of organic products from one sample. The optimized analytical approach was applied to the samples from historical objects, showing the presence of proteins, oils, wax and sugars in reliefs. The interpretation of obtained results is not straightforward because of the low response of these substances in the samples, their possible mixture, or unknown origin. In some cases, the protein matter response varies with the deepness of sampling in the matter of stucco, which could be connected with its layered structure or particular surface treatment.

Roman wall-painting in southern Gaul (Gallia Narbonensis and Gallia Aquitania)

In the Greek world, the practice of decorating walls with painted stucco emerged in the 5th or 4th c. B.C. and was at first limited to public and religious monuments and the palaces of rulers, later spreading to the houses of the aristocracy. In the homes of the nobility, painted decoration enhanced the ornamentation of rooms used for receiving visitors, such as the dining room (andron), in which the floors were sometimes decorated with mosaics, most often with geometric motifs. In the wealthiest abodes, as seen at Pella in the 4th c. B.C., Alexandria, or on Delos in the 2nd c. B.C., a mosaic picture called an emblema sometimes lay at the centre of the mosaic. In the realm of domestic art, in the Hellenistic age images were restricted to the mosaic floors. The walls were ornamented with architectural elements that imitated, in stucco relief, the fashions that could be seen in the masonry and marble veneers of temples and palaces. This type of décor, established in the homes of Greek nobility throughout the Hellenistic era, is traditionally known as the masonry style or incrustation style.

Los señores mayas y la recreación de episodios míticos en los programas escultóricos integrados en la arquitectura

La progresiva incorporación de la figura real a los programas escultóricos integrados en la arquitectura en espacios públicos muestra la recurrente adopción de ciertas características conductuales de los dioses por parte de los gobernantes, quienes recrean ocasionalmente episodios míticos/cosmogónicos. Los casos de estudio de esta investigación, el friso de Balamkú (Campeche) y los relieves de la Gran Acrópolis Central en El Mirador (Petén, Guatemala), arrojan importante información sobre los recursos utilizados en la configuración de este tipo de escenas. Los resultados indican que, en ausencia de textos, recursos como el uso de un código visual de alto contenido simbólico y la adecuada construcción de la imagen son capaces de transmitir mensajes con sólidos trasfondos ideológicos que responden a las funciones sociales de los gobernantes.

DECIPHERING THE SYMBOLS AND SYMBOLIC MEANING OF THE MAYA WORLD TREE

AbstractAlthough cosmic tree symbolism among pre-Columbian societies of Mesoamerica traces from the Preclassic period, the underlying meaning of the motif and its symbolic permutations are poorly understood. Attempts to identify the plant in a botanical context on ceramic vessels, stucco reliefs, and stone stelae of lowland Maya attribution usually favor determinations as a kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra) or maize plant (Zea mays). A botanical assessment of the morphic and ecological characteristics of these motifs suggests, however, a white-flowered water lily of lowland swamps,Nymphaea ampla. Archeological remains at San Bartolo of the Petén indicate that these iconographic practices were established and codified to a certain extent by the first centuryb.c.The frequent identification of various gods and dynastic rulers as personifications of a water lily world tree underscores the crucial symbolic and ritualistic roles this plant once played in the practice of religion and kingship among Mayan civilizations.

The Śaiva Temple at Gāndhiyān (near Mānsehra): Some Connected Problems

The present work addresses three problems relating to the living Hindu temple located near Gāndhiyān, district Mansehra (Hazara, Pakistan). They are: to assign a proper date to the temple building based on the political history of the area and architectural remains; to determine the type of the śivaliṅga enshrined in the garbhagriha; and to work out the antiquity of the cult object on the basis of stylistic comparison with its counterparts in the region. This temple blends together features of religious buildings of the Muslims and the Hindus and associated stucco relief decoration that developed in Northwest Pakistan from the late eighteenth through to the early twentieth centuries. The Gāndhiyān liṅga is of high value in terms of its huge size, shape, and possibly because of the few incised letters in Śāradā (?) script, and is thus the subject matter of this three-fold study.

Fallax Imago: Ovid's Narcissus and the seduction of mimesis in Roman wall painting

In the late first century CE, the myth of Narcissus became one of the most frequently represented subjects in Roman wall painting. The well-known, often reproduced images from the House of Octavius...

El pixoy como material de conservación de pintura mural y relieves policromos en el área maya

Ante la problemática que se ha enfrentado en sitios arqueológicos del área maya en la conservación de pintura mural y relieves en estuco policromos que se preservan in situ, se ha buscado en nuevos materiales contrarrestar efectos de deterioro que pueden generar la pérdida de estos bienes. Dentro de los productos utilizados están los extractos vegetales, empleados principalmente como aditivos a morteros de cal y en el caso de Ek´Balam, como consolidante de capas de color. Se ha desarrollado una investigación para evaluar uno de estos materiales, el pixoy (Guazuma ulmifolia), y determinar su efectividad en la conservación arqueológica.

Stuccoes from the Early Norman Period in Sicily: Figuration, Fabrication and Integration

This study examines fragments of stucco reliefs from three churches located in Sicily and southern Italy, Santi Pietro e Paolo at Itala, San Giuliano at Caltagirone, and Santa Maria de Terreti near Reggio Calabria. The churches and stuccoes date from the late eleventh century and reveal unexpected connections and conflicts among cultures, artists and patrons during the first years of Norman rule. Stucco, a material that is rarely included in discussions of European art of the Middle Ages, merits serious consideration; in this article, it helps illuminate such major art historical questions as the status of “Islamic” Sicily and the genesis of the polyvalent art forms associated with the later Norman kings.

Review: Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples

Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples ; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; 19 October 2008––22 March 2009; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; 3 May––4 October 2009 For most readers of this journal or the general public with an interest in antiquity, visiting the ravaged ruins of popular ancient sites such as Pompeii, Stabiae, or Herculaneum may be somewhat disappointing. For the architecturally inclined, the urban remains of Pompeii with paved roads, public colonnades and blocks of houses are impressive, but by and large, they still require the power of imagination and no inconsiderable knowledge to restore the settings with crisp and colorful art work. Of course at least some sense of this perfection can be enjoyed if one is able to visit the scores of museums across the world where the better-preserved paintings, furniture, and other artistic and everyday objects, pried loose from their architectural contexts (and often restored), are put on exhibition. Visiting Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art provides the visitor a rare opportunity to view some 150 or so of the finest examples of classical art——paintings, sculpture, and decorative objects——under one roof. Organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and shown there in a slightly larger and more lavish manner, it was curated by Carol C. Mattusch (also the primary author of an informative and handsome catalog). Kenneth Lapatin was the guest curator for the exhibition at LACMA. There were masterpieces we recognize such as Plato's Academy , a mosaic panel from the Villa of T. Siminius Stephanus in Pompeii; a stucco relief of an athlete with a hoop from the Villa Marco in Stabiae; and a superb over-life-size marble statue of Aphrodite/Venus from the Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei at Baia. There were also textbook favorites such as the head of Livia in black basanite from the Louvre and the fresco view of a …

Architecture, Language, and Representation

Over the last decade, the history of architecture has undergone a belated transformation, in which questions and methods long since adopted by the history of art have been taken up and themselves further expanded and transformed when applied to architecture's related but different set of concerns. The two books under review, each by a leading American architectural histor ian, adopt unselfconscious methodological stances rather than positioning themselves in relation to these recent historiographical tendencies. While they therefore leave unanswered some questions which could be asked, they also present internally coherent and compel ling arguments that should not be ignored and that offer fruitful challenges to a 'new' architectural history. Joseph Rykwert, emeritus Professor of architecture and art history at the University of Pennsylvania, has written a series of monographs over the last 40 years on aspects of Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment European architectural theory. He has had an ongoing interest in the roots of modernist thinking and practice in eighteenth-century precedents, and in the legacy of this modernist tradition for the present day. The Judicious Eye: Architecture against the Other Arts unites these concerns. At once a detailed history and a present-oriented polemic, the book presents a history of the abandonment of the public realm by both architects and artists since the eighteenth century. This tendency, which Rykwert considers highly regrettable, has been caused by the separation of architecture from the other arts. That separation has itself both stemmed from and resulted in the subservience of architecture to commer cial interests and the exclusive dedication of the other visual arts to avant-garde anti-institutional posturing. Behind Rykwert's account lies a lost world in which the man-made environment was made meaningful and digni fied through a natural integration of the visual arts, though he gives only brief glimpses of precisely how this integration operated and what its significance was. One of these glimpses comes at the beginning of the book, where he is tracing the rise of a generic, repeatable, technologically enhanced set of interior decoration motifs in the work of the Adams brothers in the 1760s and 1770s. To point up the superficiality of the Adams' use of 'grotesque' motifs for wall decoration, he offers an account of the use of grottesche in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in the ceiling paintings of Raphael, Michelangelo, and their baroque successors. Seen as justified because rooted in particular antique examples of wall paintings in underground spaces, grot tesche also 'allowed artists ... to play with levels of rea lity as well as of reference: painted vignettes could in turn be framed in stucco relief, or yet in painted imitation of cameo and embossing, and might be enclosed in an over all relief-and-fresco composition'. It is the richness of meaning in combination with the formal articulation of large public spaces that Rykwert finds so important in this 'architectural' form of painting and sculpture: 'formal elaboration is nourished by an iconographic complexity' (pp. 21-3). A deep and complex understanding of classi cal antiquity and a nuanced application of its lessons also form part of Rykwert's lost world. Over seven dense and erudite chapters, Rykwert pro vides an account, beginning in the mid-eighteenth century and ending in the 1950s, of the gradual loss of a world in which the arts achieved the kind of meaningful integration that properly dignified the public sphere. Despite the invo cation of that 'public sphere' in the preface and con clusion, this is far from a sociological study. Rykwert gives the reader a fairly straightforward art historical over view, focusing on specific examples of individual archi tects, artists, movements, and the occasional theorist or figure from outside the visual arts, wide ranging, but all securely within the canon of 'advanced' European and North American art and architecture (with brief forays into the Latin American arts.) But in place of a history of pro gress, he offers a history of loss and failure. The loosening of the continuous natural bond to the classical past, which begins with Goethe and Herder's historical relati vism and the rediscovery of the Gothic, is the beginning of this development. It fosters an artificiality in the relation ship of both artists and architects to the past that leads to the disintegration of other natural bonds especially

The Piccolomini library in Siena Cathedral: a new reading with particular reference to two compartments of the vault decoration

The murals of the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral, featuring episodes from the life of Pope Pius II, are usually discussed as distinctly separate from the vault imagery, predominantly all'antica and mythological scenes. The latter, combined with the centrally‐placed, antique statue of The Three Graces, has led some authors to comment on the library's overtly 'pagan' content as shockingly incongruent with its setting in the sacred precincts of the duomo. Little attention is paid to the significance of the stucco relief above the entrance, The Expulsion from Paradise. The article pro‐poses that such a prestigious project for so powerful and erudite a patron as Cardinal Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini, and painted by the highly acclaimed artist Pinturicchio, is unlikely to have been devised without careful attention to its iconographical programme. Focussing primarily on the two largest compartments of the vault, it is demonstrated that the four principal figures there should be interpreted as representatives of the four temperaments. By defining their relationship as such to the Expulsion from Paradise relief and to the historical narratives on the walls, this article shows that the mythological scenes in the vault play an allegorical role within the broader scheme and that a coherent programme underpins the entire decoration, with the writings of Saint Augustine and of his fifteenth century followers at its core.

Space and decoration in Hellenistic houses

The decoration of Hellenistic houses can be understood in terms of hierarchies, which marked out the relative importance of the rooms and spaces in the house. In mosaics, the hierarchy is related to the materials used and the complexity of the design; wall painting is capable of expressing more subtle distinctions, through a combination of colours, motifs, decorative friezes, and architectural features in stucco relief. Surviving houses from Delos, Morgantina and Monte Iato are analysed in detail to explain how their decoration might have worked, and from these examples some conclusions are drawn about changes in the use of domestic space in the late Hellenistic period.

Linda Schele (1942-1998)

On April 18, 1998, Linda Schele, one of the century's greatest Mayanists, died of pancreatic cancer in Austin, Texas. At her death, she was John D. Murchison Regents Professor of Art at the University of Texas. Her brilliant career in studies could never have been predicted from her childhood and upbringing. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to a family that she once described to me, probably with some exaggeration, as essentially redneck. Linda had always wanted to be an artist, but she had to make a living, so in 1960 she began taking commercial art courses at the University of Cincinnati, graduating in 1964. Her horizons were broadening to include literature, and after another four years in Cincinnati's graduate program, she was awarded a master's degree in that subject. In the same year, 1968, she married the architect David Schele, beginning a partnership that was to last the rest of her life. The young couple moved to Mobile, Alabama, where Linda began teaching art at the University of South Alabama, a position that she held until 1980, all the while continuing to paint. The year 1970 marked a crucial point in Linda's life trajectory, for she and David had decided to spend Christmas vacation travelling through Mexico. Their journey, accompanied by five Alabama students, took them to the ruins of Palenque, about which they knew next to nothing. hit me in the gut, she once said, and she returned the next summer to study and draw the architecture. Another milestone year for Linda was 1973. That summer she worked as Merle Greene Robertson's assistant in photographing the stucco reliefs of Palenque and the great burial chamber of its ruler K'inich Hanab Pakal. Then, in December 1973, during the epoch-making First Palenque Mesa Redonda, she not only gave her first professional paper, but also collaborated with the young Australian scholar Peter Mathews to present to the conference members, for the very first time, the virtually complete dynastic history of a great city. This meeting established the previously unknown Linda as a major figure in studies, with an impressive command not only of art and art history, but also of dirt archaeology and epigraphy. This was also a turning point for epigraphy, for it brought together the twin threads of the decipherment: the historical approach of Heinrich Berlin and Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and the phonetic (logosyllabic) approach of Yuri Knorosov. Linda was always a great believer in collaborative scholarship, and soon after participated in a series of miniconferences at Dumbarton Oaks with Floyd Lounsbury (who was a mentor throughout her scholarly career), Peter Mathews, and David Kelley, further refining the Palenque sequence and opening new epigraphic frontiers. By this time, Linda had become so committed to her life as a Mayanist that she burned her bridges, resigning her post at South Alabama and enrolling as a graduate student in Latin American Studies at the University of Texas (Austin). Her 1980 doctoral thesis, Maya Glyphs: The Verbs (published by Texas in 1982), was the first major work on the grammar of hieroglyphic writing and cleared the way for further structural studies of the script by such figures as Victoria Bricker, Katherine Josserand, and Nicholas Hopkins, among others. The very next year she was appointed as Associate Professor of Art by the University of Texas, where she began to attract a host of students who have since become leaders in the field. Linda, in fact, was a truly great teacher and a mesmerizing speaker. In 1977, while technically still on the staff of South Alabama, she initiated the first of 21 consecutive workshops on M ya hieroglyphic writing at the University of Texas. These were a resounding success and probably introduced more interested persons to the field than ma y a popul r book on the subject. She was unforgettable when she strode onto the stage, Coke bottle in hand and wearing t e most informal of clothes; Linda's humor, salty sp ech, a d infectious enthusiasm brought the ancient

Donatello's Bronze Doors for the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo

Donatello's stucco reliefs and bronze doors for the Old Sacristy at San Lorenzo were commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici and his brother, Lorenzo, to complete the decoration of the funerary chapel of their parents. The iconography of this sculpture establishes the sacristy as a family monument and clearly points to Cosimo's branch of the family as the ruling dynastic line of the Medici. The stylistic references in the doors to early Christian forms associate the Medici with the history of San Lorenzo, a building whose first dedication dates to the late fourth century, thus establishing their presence in this part of the city to which they had moved only in the late Trecento. The selection of saints on the Apostles' Doors metaphorically represents the Medici's importance in Florence and to the Papacy and, furthermore, suggests specific connections to the Council of Ferrara/Florence (1438-39), which Cosimo had financed.

Hylas in Pompeian art

Roger Ling, Hylas in Pompeianart, p. 773-816. With the aid of some new identificatons we can group the iconography of the Hylas episode in Campanian art before. A.D. 79 into four main types. The first, represented by two paintings of the Pompeian Third Style, shows a standing Hylas seized by three nymphs, one on either side, and one behind him; the second and third, which are later in date, probably developed as variants of this composition. The fourth type, represented by a series of stucco reliefs, shows Hylas in a running posture and may have developed from a tradition of relief sculpture, though not without some influence from the pictorial tradition. A survey of the companion-pieces found with representations of Hylas in Pompeian art suggests that thematic links, where they occur, are on a superficial level. Post-Pompeian representation of the myth are briefly reviewed.