pastiglia

English

White lead pastiglia on an Italian casket, late 15th century, with Marcus Curtius at left, British Museum

Etymology

From Italian pastiglia. Doublet of pastegh, pastel, pastila, pastilla, and pastille.

Noun

pastiglia (uncountable)

1. Low relief decoration, normally modelled in gesso or white lead, applied to build up a surface that may then be gilded or painted, or left plain.
   • 2005, Malcolm Bull, “Objects”, in The Mirror of the Gods: How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods, Oxford, Oxon: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 39:

     But it was the white-lead pastiglia box that was closest to the cassone in both form and decoration.

   • 2014, Carl Brandon Strehlke, “Bernard Berenson and Asian Art”, in Joseph Connors, Louis A[lexander] Waldman, editors, Bernard Berenson: Formation and Heritage, [Florence]: Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, →ISBN, page 213:

     Sassetta was his example, but Berenson actually missed the only element in that artist’s oeuvre that can lay claim to Asian influence: the pastiglia in the frame of the San Sepolcro altarpiece, in which the pattern of intertwined morning glories with the buds and leaves seen from different points of view is Chinese in origin (Fig. 4).

   • 2021, Jean Michel Massing, “Prints and the Beginnings of Global Imagery”, in Grażyna Jurkowlaniec, Magdalena Herman, editors, The Reception of the Printed Image in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries: Multiplied and Modified (Routledge Research in Art History), New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, →ISBN, part III (Images):

     The set of prints also influenced manuscript and book illustrations, including borders of books of hours and frontispieces; also majolica dishes, such as two large dishes by Jacopo de Cafaggiolo, one of them dated 1514; Renaissance enamels; white lead pastiglia caskets; and bronze plaquettes.

Further reading

• pastiglia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish pastilla. Doublet of pastello.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /paˈstiʎ.ʎa/
• Rhymes: -iʎʎa
• Hyphenation: pa‧stì‧glia

Noun

pastiglia f (plural pastiglie)

1. pastille, lozenge
2. (automotive, cycling) Ellipsis of pastiglia dei freni.; brake pad

Related terms

• pastigliare

Descendants

• → English: pastiglia
• → Turkish: pestil

Anagrams

• plagiasti, spigliata