Richard McClary's new book: Stucco in the Islamic World
A wide-ranging, illustrated exploration of the uses of stucco in Islamic architecture in the pre-modern period
The book engages with new methodological approaches, including those that go beyond traditional art-historical ones, and works with a wide range of disciplines, including material science and archaeology. It includes numerous sites that have not been previously studied in detail, as well as new approaches to the study of the material, and presents a greater understanding of the use of colour and understanding of materiality.
It includes contributions from a range of leading scholars from around the world working on this ubiquitous, important, but at times ephemeral and still poorly understood, medium in a wide variety of different cultural contexts. There are separate parts for each of the main geographic areas, with each of these sections arranged broadly chronologically.