Context 154 - May 2018

C O N T E X T 1 5 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 8 53 Book reviews The craft of the Luganese Making Magnificence: architects, stuccatori and the eighteenth- century interior Christine Casey,Yale University Press, 2017, 316 pages, 252 colour and black and white illustrations, hardback, ISBN 978 0 300225 77 8, £50 The greatest tragedy of the fire that devastated Clandon Park in Surrey was the partial destruction of the sumptuous plasterwork that formed the focus of the decoration in the Marble Hall. A superlative demonstration of the skill and imagination of Giovanni Battista Bagutti and Giuseppe Arturi, it epitomised the marked contrast between exuberant interior decoration and the restraint of neo-Palladian architecture in Georgian England. The National Trust has committed itself to its complete restoration and the publication of this scholarly book can not have been more timely in helping it to rise to that challenge. Although the importance of foreign stuccotori (ornamental plasterers) on Georgian taste has long been recognised, this is the first comprehensive account to place them within a pan-European tradition and to explore their training, their economic and social status, and the cultural and stylistic influences that shaped their skills. It is based on meticulous research in the primary and secondary sources, and an enviable command of the recent literature in German, French and Italian, as well as the pioneering study by Geoffrey Beard of Decorative Plasterwork in Great Britain first published in 1975. The central theme is the lives and works of the members of the workshops that had the greatest impact on the plasterwork decoration of England and Ireland in the first half of the 18th century. In addition to Arturi and Bagutti, these included Francesco Vassalli, Giuseppe Cortese and the three Lanfranchini brothers. They all came from a stone-quarrying region around Lake Lugano in the foothills of the Alps, which was well- supplied with lime and gypsum, the essential ingredients of stucco. The first chapter, looking at the broader production of stucco in Europe, makes the fundamental observation that it was attractive to patrons as a decorative medium because of its low cost in comparison to painted or sculpted decoration, and for the speed with which it could be executed. It examines the creative relationship between architects and skilled craftsmen, and explores the sources that inspired the detailed designs and how they developed across the continent. A fascinating chapter then describes the powerful allegiance of the Luganese craftsmen to their homeland in Italian- speaking Switzerland, and presents a vivid picture of their education and training, and their close family and professional networks. Each spring the craftsmen would migrate to their workplaces in Italy or north of the Alps, leaving behind their womenfolk and a few uneducated peasants to maintain the agriculture that was the basis of the local economy. They would return in November at the end of the building season and marriages generally took place early in the new year, with birth rates rising dramatically in the autumn. The perilous nature of their annual journey through the St Gotthard pass is captured in an awesome painting by JMWTurner (which is so evocative that it is reproduced twice in the book). The organisation of the workshops and the various skills that were involved are described in an important chapter which places them in an artistic hierarchy below sculptors, architects and painters but well above the native master craftsmen in the countries where they worked. Initially this was largely in the baroque churches and houses of Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, where their output is examined in great detail. By the end of the first decade of the 18th century they had arrived in England and for the next 50 years they dominated stucco production in the British Isles. The impetus was provided by the country house building boom which began around 1714, and was stimulated by aristocrats returning from their Grand Tours in Europe and the patronage of architects such as James Gibbs, the expatriate Giacomo Leoni and Francis Smith. Their magnificent results can be enjoyed in the decoration of countless houses, public buildings and churches throughout England. It is critically evaluated by Casey, who pays due regard to the native craftsmen who worked in partnership with the foreign masters. A separate chapter covers the extraordinary plasterwork of Ireland, both in the countryside and in Dublin, where the patronage of the Palladian architect Richard Castle was an important influence and the Lanfranchini brothers reigned supreme. The concluding chapter explores the reasons for the decline of the Luganese influence in the latter part of the century. This is a magnificent book which fully justifies its title. It brings together all the various strands in a convincing narrative and is generously illustrated Making Magnificence Making Magnificence e casey isassociate rchitecturalhistoryanda ityCollegeDublin. Making Magnificence architects,stuccatoriandthe eighteenth-century interior Thisbook tells the remarkable story of thecraftsmenofTicino, in Italian- speakingSwitzerland,who took their prodigious skillsas specialistdecorative plasterworkers throughoutNorthern Europe in the18thcentury,adorning classicalarchitecturewith their richand fluentdécor. Theirnamesarenotwidely known–GiuseppiArtari( c. 1690–1771 ), GiovanniBattistaBagutti( 1681–1753 ), andFrancescoVassalli( 1701–1771 )are a few–but theirwork transformed the interiorsofmagnificentbuildings in Italy,Austria,Germany, theNetherlands, Britain,and Ireland. Among the interiors highlighted in thisdeeply researched, beautifully illustratedvolumeare the PalazzoReale inTurin, theUpper Belvedere inVienna,St.Martin in the Fields inLondon, theRadcliffeCamera in Oxford,HoughtonHall inNorfolk,and CartonHouse in Ireland. casey a architects, stuccatori and the eighteenth-century interior lable from yale y press: Architect inRenaissance Italy ert ent toObject:Genealogiesof Modernism nghenaandVenetianBaroque kins 9 7 8 0 300 22 5778 ISBN: 978-0-300-225778 Christine Casey yale uni:ersity press new ha:en and london tnew.indd 1 12/01/2017 13:29