pastiglia

[ pah-steel-yuh; Italian pahs-tee-lyah ]

noun

1. a plaster used during the Italian Renaissance for bas-relief ornament of furniture, being applied in layers, molded, carved, and gilded.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pastiglia¹

1925–30; < Italian < Spanish pastilla. See pastille

Example Sentences

Did I mention he employed pastiglia, building up images with low-relief plaster that he painted and gilded, heightening the presence of jeweled crowns and pendants, chain-mail armor, ornate weapons and crowns of thorns?

From New York Times

Decorative touches of gilded pastiglia abound, notably metalwork on the horse’s red reins, harness and bridle and the sunburst knee and elbow guards on St. George.

From New York Times

He is one of those extremely dexterous Italian workmen-artists who know and can work in every material, and whose forgeries of sixteenth century bric-à-brac, cassoni, reliefs in pastiglia, &c. &c., have, I am afraid, not infrequently been purchased as original by very crafty persons.

From Project Gutenberg

In a drawing-room faithful to Dunlap Brothers' exorbitant interpretation of the Italian Renaissance, a veritable forest of wrought-iron candle-trees burned dimly into a scene of Pinturicchio table, tapestry-surmounted wedding-chest, brave and hideous with pastiglia work, the inevitable camp-chair of Savonarola, an Umbrian-walnut chair with lyre-shaped front, bust of Dante Alighieri in Florentine cap and ear-muffs, a Sienese mirror of the soul, sixteenth-century suit of cap-à-pie armor on gold-and-black plinth, Venetian credence with wrought-iron locks.

From Project Gutenberg