2022 – 2023
The subtle surface relief of paintings and other low-relief objects represents a growing area of interest in heritage preservation.
Reference
ÉQUIPE
- Carlos Bayod | Factum Foundation
- Carolina Gris | Factum Foundation
- Marina Luchetti | Factum Foundation
THE PROJECT
Recently, in the context of ARCHiVe activities the Lucida 3D scanner has been used to record the entire paintings collection of Palazzo Cini Gallery in Venice (49 paintings by Lorenzo Tiepolo, Botticelli, Ercole de’ Roberti, Dosso Dossi and others) and the following artworks:
- The large tapestry The Entry into Palestine of the Army of Vespasian from the Cini collection that was recorded in ARCHiVe (March 2022);
- The Portrait of Andrea Doria by Tintoretto and the Portrait of Maria Rosa Spinola by Rubens, in a private collection in Genoa (October 2022);
- The Portrait of Federico II, Ist Duke of Mantua by Titian at the Museo del Prado, and The Ecstasy of St Gregory the Great by Rubens at the Musée de Grenoble (March 24 – June 25, 2023);
- Rogier van der Weyden’s Beaune Altarpiece at the Hôtel-Dieu Museum (January 2023);
- The St Peter Polyptych by Nicolò da Voltri at the Castello di Gabiano for a private collector (March 2023);
- The Creation of Animals by Jacopo Tintoretto at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice (March 2023).
The Lucida 3D Scanner is a close-range, non-contact laser recording system that captures high-resolution surface texture data for low-relief surfaces such as paintings or bas-reliefs. The scanner is a versatile system that produces high-resolution data with close correspondence to the original surface. It is also easy to operate, a factor that has encouraged to use it in training programmes for cultural heritage digitisation (see, for example, the 1st ARCHiVe workshop in 2023).
Lucida is the result of a collaboration between artist Manuel Franquelo and the team from Factum Foundation. The in-house development of the Lucida, which began in 2011, was a response to the growing needs of both Factum Arte and Factum Foundation for high-resolution surface data of paintings, as well as for ongoing recording and facsimile projects in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, Luxor. Commercial 3D scanning technologies, which find dark colours and glossy surfaces problematic, were no longer a viable option to capture the quality needed for both facsimile production and research.
High-resolution relief data is essential to facsimile production. When used in conjunction with colour data from panoramic photography, it allows us to ‘rematerialise’ an object as a replica of the original. Colour information ‘mapped’ very precisely onto 3D data can also be visualised in diverse ways – from projections to layered browsers.
OBJECTIVES
Lucida data enables researchers to ‘remove’ the colour from the surface of an object in order to study, for instance, a painter’s brush strokes or the pounce marks on a cartoon that was once used to weave a tapestry. Changes to the surface of a painting, for example as a result of restoration processes, can also be monitored by comparing Lucida scans taken at different times.
Since 2011, the Lucida has been used to record paintings and other objects at institutions such as the National Gallery (London), the Prado Museum (Madrid), the Louvre (Paris), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), the Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan), Casa Pilatos (Seville), the National Gallery of Art (Washington), the Vatican Museum (Rome), the Mauritshuis (The Hague), and the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow). Projects realised with the Lucida 3D Laser Scanner have been shown at Palazzo Te (Mantua), Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice), Strawberry Hill House (London), Waddesdon Manor, and the Antikenmuseum Basel, amongst many others.
