The 'Virgen de las Nieves'

In February 2019, the facsimile of a terracotta icon of the ‘Virgen de las Nieves’ produced by Factum Arte, alongside a protective shell for the original, was officially inaugurated in a presentation by the governing council to the people of the westernmost Canary Island of La Palma.

More about the project can be found here.

Save the Whitechapel Bell foundry

We need your help! The historic foundry, the UK's oldest continuous manufacturing business until its closure in 2017, is facing being converted into a 'bell-themed boutique hotel' by its new property developer owners.

More information on this decimation of British cultural and historical heritage, and how you can help prevent it from happening, can be found on a Spitalfields Life article here, whilst Factum Foundation's full proposal outlining our plan to save it can be read here.

Bando Lucida 2019, presented by Open Care and Factum Foundation

Factum Foundation participated in the Open Care conference on the 29th January. Marking the second edition of the Bando Lucida, an initiative to return a deteriorated work of art to public use through restoration involving Factum’s Lucida 3D Scanner, this event presented the results of the previous edition’s selection: the Angelo Annunciante by Gaudenzio Ferrari. This will be explored alongside a series of talks, including a presentation by Guendalina Damone from Factum’s Lucida Lab Milano.
© Image: Open Care Servizi per l'Arte

BACK TO WORK IN LUXOR

Factum Foundation are pleased to announce that work is now restarting on the tomb of Seti I, a crucial step in completing one of the central goals of the Theban Necropolis Preservation Initiative: to record and re-materialise the entire ancient site. Based at the recently restored Stoppelaëre House nearby, this work will be led by an entirely Egyptian team trained by the Foundation who will also be undertaking the teaching of local trainees in the areas of digitising and archiving their own cultural heritage.

Read more here.

ARCHiVe - Analysis and Recording of Cultural Heritage in Venice

Factum Foundation, Fondazione Giorgio Cini and the Digital Humanities Laboratory of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have launched ARCHiVe, a new initiative dedicated to the use, study and transmission of cultural heritage through digital technologies. The three partners share the belief that digital conservation is leading to a deeper understanding of works of art and cultural heritage. Hence, it is an epoch-shaping opportunity bound to have a big impact on both research and education. Learn more.

Fitch Colloqium 2019

On February 15th, Factum’s Carlos Bayod participated at the Fitch Colloqium; a conference hosted by Columbia University GSAPP’s Historical Preservation Programme that explored the future of historical preservation through focusing on experimental approaches to digital documentation, sharing, visualisation and re-materialisation of data, largely through an examination of cutting-edge 3D scanning.

More information on the conference can be found here.

J.B. Jackson's Woodcuts

Palazzo Sturm in Bassano del Grappa has partnered with Factum Foundation to digitise and create facsimiles of a series of woodcuts by the British eighteenth-century artist and printmaker John Baptist Jackson; considered one of the most talented and innovative of the era. Jackson is well-known for having revived the Renaissance printing technique known as chiaroscuro.

Read more about the project here.

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 of a piece by the Dutch master Rembrandt, ‘Portrait of an Elderly Man’, held at the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, Netherlands. This extremely high-resolution, complete non-contact method will result in the creation of 3D reproductions of the painting using Océ's Elevated Printing Technology.

Image © Clemens Weijkamp, Océ

Caravaggio's 'Nativity'

In 2015, the re-creation of Caravaggio's famed stolen work, by the foundation's sister company Factum Arte, was unveiled in its original location at the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo.

This is explored, alongside a modern history of the lost piece, in an article featuring Adam Lowe that can be read here on The Guardian, whilst more information on the re-creation can be found here.

Image © Photograph: Ufficio Stampa/ANSA

The Re-Opening of the Cast Courts at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Cast Courts at the V&A reopened this November following a long refurbishment. Factum Foundation, in collaboration with the Peri Foundation and with the support of the Dagestan aul museum (Makhachkala), has created a copy of an 18th century tombstone from the village of Kala-Koreysh, Dagestan.
Click here to know more about the project.

Photo © courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum

Photogrammetry Training at Al-Ula

Factum's Otto Lowe spent two weeks in the town of Al-Ula, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, teaching a group of fifteen locals how to record cultural heritage in 3D using photogrammetry. This collaborative pilot project between the Factum Foundation, Art Jameel, and the Royal Commission of Al-Ula (RCU) involved the recording of three ancient petroglyph sites.

Read more about it here.

Recording an avant-garde masterpiece

In March 2018, a Factum Foundation team was in Moscow to record two versions of the famed Malevich painting Black Square, 1915 and Black Square, 1929. In a joint initiative with the Tretyakov Gallery, where the works are held, both the Lucida 3D scanner and panoramic photography were utilised to document what is considered the most iconic work of the Russian avant-garde.

Read more.

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. Culture is under threat and digitisation of Cultural Heritage is the most effective way to monitor its condition. Following the recording of the vandalised sacred cave, Factum Foundation is now working on its digital reconstruction in virtual and physical form. Learn more.

Raphael's "Lo Spasimo"

The high-resolution colour recording of Raphael's "Lo Spasimo di Sicilia" ­was made possible by the Museo del Prado. This was the first step towards the creation of a reproduction of “Lo Spasimo” that will be displayed in the Palermitan monastery of Santa Maria dello Spasimo, where the painting hung until the middle of the 16th century. During its time in France in the 19th century, the painting was transferred from its wooden panel onto a canvas, a fact that Factum Foundation addresses with the ‘recreation’ of the painting on a rigid panel. Read more.