PAPIER-MÂCHÉ. - Papier-mâché (not to be confused with « cartone romano » or « carton pierre » or « elo-plastica », which is an improvement on ordinary plaster casts through the incorporation of linen and final impregnation with boiled oil) is a plastic substance, made of paper long macerated with glue, which is moulded in casts or over light frameworks while still damp; then, once dried and painted, it acquires an almost woody solidity while retaining great lightness. Since the Middle Ages, papier-mâché has also been used for modelling sacred images.
The Crucifix of the Servants of Mary in Bologna was fashioned at the end of the sixteenth century from the papers that poured into the church after a moving sermon against gambling. The painter Menighella, having taken a mould from a most beautiful crucifix given him by Michelangelo, made several papier-mâché copies of it by mixing cardboard with various compounds. At the end of the eighteenth century papier-mâché underwent great development in southern Italy, and especially in Lecce, from whose workshops there still issue in large numbers, besides toys, sacred images. The Church, however, has always disapproved of papier-mâché as a material for sacred images, for which nobler materials are to be preferred.