Although the astonishing quality and variety of Dublin’s Georgian decorative plasterwork has long been celebrated, this is the first full length study of the work of Michael Stapleton, the most skilled stuccador working in the neo-classical or ‘Adam’ style that dominated Dublin interior decoration in the final decades of the eighteenth century. It publishes for the first time the remarkable collection of drawings from his workshop which is held at the National Library of Ireland. Conor Lucey’s study presents much new research and examines the collection of designs within the broader context of neo-classical stuccowork in Dublin, considering it as evidence for the late eighteenth-century plastering trade in general. It offers a fascinating account of the many forces at play in how the Irish Georgian interior was shaped.
‘Scholarly and luscious.’ (John Harris, Apollo)
‘Exciting and important.’ (Joseph McDonnell, Irish Arts Review)
