The use of lime and marble dust as a fundamental component in the final layer of the wall surface goes back 5000 years. The first written record dates to Vitruvius who described the technique and ingredients in his treatises on architecture in the 1st century A.D.

The appearance of intonaco, called "marmorino" and now known as venetian plaster, can be traced back to the first half of the 15th century in Venice, when a new exterior wall facing was devised by the "maestranze" in response to the aesthetic demand of the day and a renewed interest in the classical ideal.

Subsequently, in the 16th century, Andrea Palladio, employing the talents of the master "stuccatore", Alessandro Vittoria, used marmorino as a primary finish in his classically elegant villas throughout the Veneto region.

Four hundred years later, in the 1960's, Italian architect Carlo Scarpa was instrumental in the revival of venetian plaster. Intimately linked to the Venetian tradition of the integration of materials and striving to capture the pleasure of the tactile surface, he re-introduced the use of stucco in his work, successfully uniting design, color and material.