Study of Materials and Technique of Late Baroque Stucco Decorations: Baldassarre Fontana from Ticino to Czechia

Abstract

From the 16th to the 18th century, many artists and craftspeople coming from villages in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, well known for its stucco tradition, worked actively in Central Europe. Baldassarre Fontana (Chiasso 1661–1733) was one of them; after a period in Rome, he was active in Moravia and Poland. This contribution presents an analytical insight into stucco works in the Ticino canton and Czech lands in order to provide an understanding of how artistic and technical skills were transferred according to local traditions, materials, or other requirements found abroad. By comparing two works that Fontana realized in his homeland and two works that he realized in today’s Czech Republic, the historic techniques used to make stucco are characterized, with an emphasis on technological aspects and materials. The detailed analyses provide information on materials and their production and processing methods in relation to the specific sites. They also reveal certain specific technological approaches which were common in all four cases that were studied. The most significant was the layered system of high-relief pieces, where the ground layer was made of lime–gypsum mortar and the finishing layer was pure air lime mortar. The construction of the finishing layer differed between the Czech and Swiss sites, suggesting some other influential factors.