InmedievalandRenaissancetimes, gesso (plaster of Paris mixed withglue) wasapplied to wood panels, plaster, stone, orcanvas to provide the groundfor temperaand oil painting.
The New Amsterdam Room, originally the men's smoking retreat, is a marvelous elliptical space ringed with rotund plaster columns resembling gray Caen stone, and murals of New York from Dutch days to 1900.