Lime Plaster

The city of Lucknow1 has about hundred buildings (belonging to 18th and 19th century) embellished with the finest lime plaster ornamentation. The buildings in different stages of deterioration belongs to various typologies and owned by Government agencies (ASI, SAD, others), Hussainabad trust and private residences. It is required to pay urgent attention for their conservation and restoration.
This process of conserving the lime plaster ornamentation2 requires engaging competent (if not authentic) artisanship; otherwise the whole notion of Authenticity in Conservation3 becomes nullified. The genealogy of artisans is on the verge of extinction and it is the need of the moment to revitalize the existing human resources of Art and Skill; also replicating the Artisans by the process of Transmission of Knowledge to the next generation. Presently there are some ten artisans residing in Firangi Mahal, Kakori area of Lucknow City who are following the art traditionally and possess knowledge which can be imparted to the young generation and apprentice.
With many challenges for the artisans to sustain their livelihood it becomes important to identify the cause of depletion of the artisanship and to work out a strategy for its revival. The paper is an attempt to address the issues and derive detailed strategy and proposals for the revival, sustenance and propagation of the artisanship.

Following the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish Sages instituted a ban on plastering buildings, as a way of memorializing the sacking of Jerusalem and the razing of the Temple. This paper reviews the sources in rabbinic literature relating to this ban, examines the role plaster played in the architecture of Late Antiquity, and compares this prohibition with other decrees from the period. The paper identifies the intentions of the rabbis in limiting the use of plaster, and concludes that the rabbis were banning frescoes, rather than undecorated plaster.

Im Beitrag steht die in den Kunstwissenschaften nur in sehr allgemeiner Form bekannte Technologie von Sgraffito-Dekorationen im Florenz des Quattrocento im Mittelpunkt. Mit Hilfe von Dokumenten und Quellen aus dem 15. und 16. Jahrhundert sowie den Ergebnissen restauratorischer Untersuchungen, naturwissenschaftlicher Analysen und praktischem Nachvollzug wird versucht, die einzelnen Ausführungsschritte zu rekonstruieren.

(Berichtigung: Die in meinem Beitrag behauptete Verwendung des Begriffs "albaria insignita" für Sgraffito-Putz in Leon Battista Albertis 'De re aedificatoria' ist inkorrekt. Wie andere Stellen in Albertis Traktat belegen, ist hiermit tatsächlich plastischer Stuck gemeint; die Übersetzungen Orlandi/Portoghesis bzw. Theuers sind richtig.)

Araaish, meaning decoration in Persian, is a fine lime plaster with a marble like finish. However, traces of its origin are yet to be explored. The finish, as a technique, was often used as a base for paintings which adorned many palaces of the Rajputs and Bundelas. Mughals were the biggest patrons of Araaish and it was extensively used during Akbar’s reign.

Traditionally the crafts were practiced in karkhanas (Royal factories) or through guilds. Master craftsmen taught their apprentices secret recipes of making particular finishes. Most of the time, these recipes and techniques were not documented, and knowledge was shared orally. Archived information in the form of descriptions in travelogues, memoirs and paintings was explored to historically anchor and understand prevalent traditional practices, employed for making the finish. One of the earliest examples of Araaish is found on the columns of the Shahi Hamam (Royal bath house) belonging to Akbar’s period at Agra fort.

The finish is made in three layers where each layer has a specific purpose and the process of making - which adds to the plaster’s special characteristics, needs to be explored. Lastly, scientific investigations to understand physical and chemical properties (S.E.M. – Scanning-electron microscope) of samples of historic and modern day Araaish were carried out. The determination of the composition of a historic plaster is relevant during restoration works on historic buildings, as it helps define the composition of the finish for a deeper scientific understanding and informed practice of conservation.

Key Words: Araaish, Lime plaster, archival investigations, techniques, scientific investigations

Kalkmörtel gilt gemeinhin als Material, dessen Beitrag zur Kunst des Trecento sich in seiner Verwendung als Putzträger bei einer Freskierung erschöpft. Hierbei wird jedoch das  diesem Material innewohnende Potential zur eigenständigen künstlerischen Gestaltung übersehen: Im Florenz des 14. Jahrhunderts entwickelten Handwerker aus dem konventionellen, aus dem Werkprozess hervorgegangenen Bandfugendekor ein in Putz geschabtes, auf subtilen Unterschieden in der Putzoberfläche beruhendes Bild isodomen Quadermauerwerks, das als ‚Urbild‘ der Sgraffito-Kunst bis ins 16. Jahrhundert deren Grundmotiv blieb. Die Anwendung der neuen Technik ging mit einer raschen Ausweitung des bildlichen Repertoires einher, die ihrerseits die Ansprüche an die Technik hinsichtlich der zu erzielenden Wirkung veränderte. Die in diesem Zusammenhang wichtigsten Neuerungen - die ab der Mitte des Quattrocento übliche Graufärbung - erhöhten zwar den Kontrast und setzten die Wände stärker gegen andere Formen der Fassadengestaltung ab, änderten aber nichts an der maßgeblichen Rolle des Grundmaterials Kalkmörtel. Dessen Zusammensetzung und Charakteristika bestimmten im Wesentlichen die Ausführungstechnik und deren Resultat, zu dem über den erzeugten Effekt hinaus die große Haltbarkeit der Gestaltung gehörte.

Der Beitrag zur Sektion rekonstruiert unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Materials und auf Basis der frühesten nachweisbaren Sgraffito-Fassaden (Palazzo Davizzi-Davanzati, San Remigio) und bildlicher Zeugnisse (Andrea Pisanos „Webkunst“-Relief am Campanile) die Erfindung des Sgraffito zu Beginn des 14. Jahrhunderts in Florenz. Dies schließt die Frage ein, wie ein vergleichsweise billiger Werkstoff zu einem bevorzugten Material für die Gestaltung bedeutender Bauwerke werden konnte, was sich daraus zur zeitgenössischen Rezeption der Technik ableiten lässt und welche Rolle Handwerker und (ab 1452 nachweisbar:) namhafte Künstler bei der Erfindung bzw. Entwicklung der Sgraffito-Kunst spielten.

""This paper discusses the medieval history of the production and the commerce of lime. As opposed to other segments of medieval architecture, for instance the organization of labour, this topic is not considered to be popular among Hungarian historians specializing on the Middle Ages, which can be explainedmainly by the sporadic sources regarding the topic. However, the available
sources make it possible to draw a rough outline.
The collected place and personal names provide an excellent tool for determining how well-spread this activity was. It is much harder to find such sources which mention. Those sources which mention lime-burning or lime-burners are much harder to find but based on these it seems obvious that the majority of the lime was produced by bondsmen and most of their product was eventually placed in
the hands of the landlords. The situation was probably utterly different when quicklime was needed at larger constructions, often commissioned by the king. In these cases well-paid and permanently occupied lime-burners played the leading role and their job was usually carried out directly at the construction
site. Town constructions must have been similarly well organized. Town councils ordered.
The lime, which was used to build or rebuild town walls or public houses commissioned by the town councils, was often burnt in lime-kilns owned by the community. In some towns, in Bártfa (Bardejov) for instance, lime was supplied by big businessmen. Medieval lime production in towns probably reached its peak at the turn of the 15th and 16th Centuries.""

Shells in general, and marine shells in particular, are conspicuously abundant at the EPPNB site of Nesher-Ramla and had a central role in the activities taking place at the site and in the lives of the people using it. Land snails most probably occurred naturally at the site while freshwater shells were brought inadvertently or purposefully as adornment. Marine shells were brought to the site from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Marine shell beads could have been either produced at NRQN, or brought there as finished products, possibly as part of elaborate ornaments. The marine shells represent different use trajectories. Glycymeris shells, none of which are likely to have been artificially perforated, and many of which were found burnt, may have been part of the local lime-plaster production. Many of the gastropods, artificially perforated in various ways, some skillfully heat treated, were used by the site’s occupants as ornamental beads. Shells were made into beads by different people or in different situations, yet following clear conceptual guidelines connecting shell-type to bead-shape. Shells from each specific taxa were perforated in a similar way, while different taxa were shaped differently. Color also varied, as both naturally light and skillfully darkened specimens appear in several taxa. This recurring array of beads was probably used to create different patterns or rhythmic visual effects. Technical differences in execution, such as depth, regularity or directionality of the manufacturing striations, represent the involvement of different producers, while recurring bead shapes represent the shared material cultural tradition of the people using NRQN.

Unlike cement, lime mortars and its related products re-absorb carbon dioxide emissions during the production process and continue to recarbonate CO2 over its in-use phase, creating a complete life cycled, closed-loop process, resulting in negative-zero (-2%) carbon emissions.

The manufacturing techniques of two PPNB plastered skulls each from Jericho, Kfar HaHoresh and Beisamoun were studied by a series of different and complementary analyses. These revealed that all share a common general technological background, and yet marked intra-site details of fabrication can be identified. All appear to have been locally produced. Similar conclusions are reached on the basis of iconographic features. Thus, although the artisans shared general concepts of the objects to be created and their means of manufacture, strong site-specific traditions were displayed. This conclusion is further reinforced by recent information concerning plastered faces from Ain Ghazal, as well as the preliminary reports on skulls from Ramad. Accordingly it is suggested that, while broad pyrotechnological and ritual information was most likely disseminated by oral communication, the artisans producing the plastered skulls were locally based and working within the framework of powerful on-...

A multi-analytical approach focus on the archaeometric characterization of plaster from temple C, and two elite houses belong to the late chalcolithic 3-4 (3800-3400 B.C), period VII in Arslantepe – Turkey, a site located in the Malatya plain, 5 km away from the city center and 15 km away from the Euphrates right bank, is done using three different methods: optical microscopy (OM) in thin section under polarizing microscopy to define petrographic features in terms of plaster fabric texture and structure as well as the type, percentage, ratio grain size and distribution of the added aggregate and inclusions Micro-morphological analysis has been carried out by Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) to define the fabric , inclusions and the secondary product in the pores . a mineralogical analysis by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) has been carried out also to identify the quantitative and qualitative mineralogical composition of the samples. In a result a marly limestone has been determine as a plaster raw material which probably came from two different source (local and other imported from different part of Malatya plain). Moreover, different aggregate selection, and diffirent technological levels were also detected in the samples, that are probably related to the level or the purpose (function) of the buildings. An evidence of a re-plastering process was also detected in the two elite houses, which probably refer to a routine maintenance process.

We encountered a number of cases in the published archaeological studies where ashes and charcoal were used as aggregates in ancient lime mixtures. These mixtures were tested in a small number of experiments, and this paper presents the results. Our tests confirmed that charcoal retains moisture and can be used to help mortars retain water. It does not, however, increase a mortar's ability to retain moisture to the same degree that crushed ceramic does. Charcoal should be an additive to a mortar and not its sole aggregate, as it is brittle and the mortar produced would be weak. Mixtures of ash with lime seem to work best when spread on a single layer. When the ash is a small part of a mortar, it does not affect its behaviour significantly. The addition of ash does not increase the ability of lime mortars to retain water. Powdered ceramics also limit the effect of ash on lime. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research into these materials and mixtures.

The modern perception of the sgraffito-technique is crucially shaped by Giorgio Vasaris description in his 26th chapter of his „Introduzione alle tre arti del disegno” (1550/1568) – but the invention of that kind of wall decoration dates back to early Trecento and had his first artistic high point in Florence in the second half of the 15th century. Beside the expensive ashlar masonry sgraffito can be considered as the most esteemed manner to mark an important building. Some of the most important Florentine private palaces were decorated in sgraffto: Palazzo da Uzzano, Palazzo Medici, Palazzo Capponi, Palazzo Rucellai, such as public buildings as the Palazzo della Signoria and the Mercanzia. Despite their widespread there are only a few mentions of the technique in documents and treatises. In my paper I will give an overview to the different terms used in the sources by authors as Niccolò Perotti, Paolo Cortesi, Raffaele Maffei and artists as Maso di Bartolomeo and Bernardo di Stefano Rosselli. Focussing the building practice in the Quattrocento I would like to connect the terms with the the extensive technological and artistic development of sgraffito in that time.

Wood ash found at archaeological sites is the most direct evidence of the presence of combustion features. The preservation of wood ash within archaeological deposits is often poor due to diagenetic processes and therefore its identification requires the use of spectroscopic methods. FTIR spectrometry is able to detect the main calcite component of wood ash, unless this is mixed with other calcitic phases of geologic origin. Using FTIR spectrometry we identified non-biogenic aragonite in archaeological heat-altered sediments and lime plasters. The presence of aragonite in such conditions is unusual, as it is unlikely to crystallize at ambient temperatures and pressures or in absence of Mg. The experimental conditions which favor the nucleation of this aragonite phase were investigated with FTIR spectrometry, XRPD and SEM imaging of modern lime plaster and quicklime samples prepared in the laboratory using different calcium carbonate starting materials. We show that aragonite forms at ambient temperatures and pressures upon carbonation of calcium oxide and calcium hydroxide together with calcite and its nucleation and growth are influenced by environmental parameters, such as carbon dioxide partial pressure, relative humidity and temperature. This pyrogenic aragonite is a reliable indicator for calcareous materials exposed to temperatures above 600 °C, and therefore it can be used to determine the presence of heat-altered sediments and ash in the absence of structured combustion features. This mineral phase could have applications in radiocarbon dating as well.