Scagliola means many things to many artists but, at its core, it is a technique that involves the manipulation of plaster to mimic rare, lost or ancient marble. The craft has its roots in the ancient world, but saw a revival from the seventeenth century. Scagliola also, unlike natural marble, shows no masonry joints and insulates well; a highly authentic piece of scagliola might only be identifiable by the fact that it is not cool to the touch like marble would be..