Abstract

Rafael Ruiz Alonso

The Sgraffito in Europe - A global vision of an important reality almost ignored

The presentation tries to summarise the outstanding presence of sgraffito in Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary European Architecture, emphasising its great geographical spread, its ability to adapt to different aesthetic tastes that have occurred over time and its great versatility as artistic techniques and artistic styles.
However, Europe also has places where independent schools of sgraffito were developed at different times of its history, for example the Islamic period of the Iberian Peninsula. The ancient kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, as well as southern Italy, have important and abundant examples of Medieval Sgraffito. The Spanish regions of Valencia and Catalonia offer the best of Baroque Sgraffito when mural painting is preferred in much of Europe. The Arts and Crafts movement led to the decoration of many churches in the United Kingdom during the 19th century. The Soviet domain used sgraffito for propagandistic purposes in countries like Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Belarus, Ukraine, etc. Finally, the papers describe the role of Europe as a continent sgraffito transmitter towards North and South American countries.

Dr. Rafael Ruiz Alonso studied “History of Art” at the Complutense University of Madrid and “Wall Coverings” (Sgraffito and Mural Painting) at the School of Art and Higher Design of Segovia. During more than thirty years he has dedicated to investigate the sgraffito techniques and its history. In 1992, he finished his Doctoral Thesis, titled “El esgrafiado en Segovia” (The sgraffito in Segovia); with it, he showed that sgraffito was not an Italian invention of the Renaissance, contrary to the opinion of most of the international bibliography. In 2013 the Institute of Traditional Segovian Culture and the Royal Academy of History and Art of St. Quirce proposed him to develop the research “National and International Trends of the Sgraffito Work”. In 2015 he published a book about materials, techniques and applications of sgraffito in many places of the world (“Esgrafiado. Materiales, técnicas y aplicaciones”). He is currently working on a new book about the historical evolution of sgraffito.
He has published twenty-seven books and articles on this subject; many of them can be consulted free of charge in: https://independent.academia.edu/RAFAELRUIZALONSO