Save the Whitechapel Bell foundry

The campaign to save the Whitechapel Bell Foundry continues. A new website and short film explain why Britain’s oldest manufacturing business should not be turned into a boutique hotel, what a sustainable 21st-century bell foundry could look like, and how you can voice your objection to the planning proposals.

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Digitisation workshop with students from ISIA Urbino 10th - 14th June

Carlos Bayod, Guendalina Damone and Otto Lowe from Factum Foundation's 3D scanning department taught a five-day workshop focussing on non-contact recording technologies to students on the Photography MA course from the design university ISIA Urbino.

Learn more about the practical courses in digitisation technologies given by Factum Foundation.

A late-15th-century altarpiece by the Maestro de Perea

The 14 panels of the Retablo del Maestro de Pera have been recorded in a new collaboration with the Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli. The recordings will provide accurate documentation of the late 15th-century altarpiece following the conservation of its panels.

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A 3D scan of Fra Angelico's Annunciation

Fra Angelico’s The Annunciation (1425-26) depicts on the one hand the Archangel Gabriel's Annunciation to the Virgin and on the other the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. In the past year, the Annunciation has undergone a complex process of cleaning and conservation.

Factum Foundation contributed to the documentation effort by carrying out a high-resolution 3D recording of the painting following the restoration, which is of particular interest in this case due to the superb surface work executed by the artist. Learn more.

Open call for the new edition of Bando Lucida 2019

The call for projects is now open for the 2019 edition of Bando Lucida. You can download the full text here.

The previous winner, the Angelo Annunciante by Gaudenzio Ferrari, was presented in its restored state at a conference on the 29th January 2019. This restoration process that took place at Open Care was explored alongside a series of talks, including one by Guendalina Damone from Factum’s Lucida Lab Milano.
© Image: Open Care Servizi per l'Arte

Opening: Madame de Pompadour in the frame,
An exhibition at Waddesdon Manor

Factum Foundation has completed facsimiles of two portraits by Boucher for the exhibition ‘Madame de Pompadour in the Frame,’ to be held at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, UK (May 23rd-October 20th, 2019). The exhibition offers a rare opportunity for viewers to directly compare a painting with its facsimile, and to see another facsimile within its historic frame, now separated from the original. Further details on both the facsimiles and exhibition can be found here.

Digital and physical reconstruction of the vandalised sacred cave of Kamukuwaká

The cave of Kamukuwaká, an important sacred petroglyph site representing the cosmogony of the inhabitants of Upper-Xingu (Mato Grosso, Brasil) and registered national monument has been intentionally destroyed in 2018. Factum Foundation recorded the cave and the digital restoration is now complete. All resources are being focused on the physical reconstruction of the cave that will be sent to Brazil upon completion. Find out more.

Canova's Equestrian Statue

Following the success of the maquette recording of Canova's equestrian statue at the Museo Civico di Bassano del Grappa and under the initiative of Chiara Casarin, the director of the museum, Factum Foundation embarked on a much more ambitious project: to create a digital model of the horse, the plaster prototype for which was made by Canova shortly before his death.

More details on this extraordinary project can be found here.

PARMIGIANINO'S 'SELF-PORTRAIT IN A CONVEX MIRROR'

Factum Foundation was asked to create a facsimile of this work for MUMOK's exhibition ‘Vertigo. Op Art and a History of Deception 1520 –1970’, which will run from May to October 2019; this will explore the Op-Art movement of the 1960s and its roots in historical artistic movements that have contemplated the nature of perception and illusion. Find out more about the recording and complex reproduction process.

Recording “The Circle” Stradivari with the Lucida 3D Laser Scanner

Factum Foundation is collaborating with luthiers Julia Sarano and Robert Brewer Young on a pilot project to create a unique 3D study of a rare violin, “The Circle” Stradivari, with a precision measured in microns, as part of a multi-layered instrument archive. The instrument is generously on loan for this study from London violin dealers J&A Beare. Data recorded with the Lucida 3D Laser Scanner, will be used to scale a high-resolution photogrammetry model of the instrument.

Facsimile of a ceiling by Giuseppe Salviati

A sixteenth-century circular ceiling canvas, painted by Giuseppe Salviati (Giuseppe Porta) for the Palazzo Grimani in Venice but now in the Musée Jaquemart-André in Paris, has been re-materialised as a facsimile and installed in its original location. You can find out more about making and installing the facsimile ceiling here.

Digitisation of Manuscripts in Dagestan

The manuscript digitisation project at the IHAE in Dagestan has led to the discovery of a palimpsest with a 6th century Gospel of Luke. The original text was in the ancient Georgian script Asomtavruli written underneath a later Arabic text. It is one of only ten such manuscripts known to exist. Digitisation opens new avenues in scholarship ­– in this case, the high-resolution images of the palimpsest have been handed over to a Georgian specialist who continues the investigation into this unique object. Read more.

In collaboration with Océ: digitising and rematerialising Rembrandt's ‘Portrait of an Elderly Man’

Factum Foundation has combined with long-time collaborators Océ for the recording and reproduction of the piece by the Dutch Master. The recording was undertaken at the Mauritshuis in December 2018, with the Lucida 3D Scanner and panoramic photography. The high resolution colour and relief information recorded by the Foundation was used by Océ to create a replica with Elevated Printing technology. Learn more.
Image © Clemens Weijkamp, Océ

Digitising Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

In 2017, Factum Foundation documented two paintings by Murillo at the Hermandad de la Santa Caridad in Seville, using the Lucida scanner, composite photography, and photogrammetry. High-resolution colour reproductions have been made from the data at a 1:1 scale; these will be displayed in the Hermandad de la Santa Caridad in a setting which will allow visitors to examine these magnificent works at close range. More details on the project can be found here.