stuccowork

Exterior or interior plasterwork used as three-dimensional ornamentation, as a smooth paintable surface, or as a wet ground for fresco painting. Today the term is most often restricted to the rough plaster coating of exterior walls. Examples occur worldwide; stucco was applied to the temple walls of ancient Greece as early as 1400 BC. Roman architects stuccoed the rough stone or brick walls of monuments such as the baths at Hadrian's Villa. Stucco was widely used in Baroque and Renaissance architecture. Because of the many ways in which it can be treated, stuccowork has remained popular. In the warmer regions of the U.S., the 1920s stucco bungalow became virtually ubiquitous.

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