The painting collection at the Galleria di Palazzo Cini

After scanning the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, the Teatro Verde, the Vatican Chapels and a large Franco-Flemish tapestry on San Giorgio Maggiore, ARCHiVe recorded a selection of paintings in the Galleria di Palazzo Cini in San Vio in March 2023. Thanks to the collaboration between the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s Institute of Art History and Factum, this unique group of artworks at the core of Vittorio Cini’s art collection is now being digitised in high-resolution.

The Lucida 3D Scanner recording the surface of one of the Polittico Griffoni panels © Joan Porcel Pascual

Gabriel Scarpa recording the colour with composite photography © Joan Porcel Pascual

The recording was carried out over a period of three weeks by Gabriel Scarpa, Carolina Gris and Marina Luchetti, part of Factum’s team in ARCHiVe, employing the Lucida 3D Scanner in combination with composite photography. Their work will provide an accurate database that will help monitor the conservation state of the paintings over time, support the twofold study of the artworks as images and objects, and disseminate their artistic and historic value.

The data was then processed to create high-resolution digital viewers available to both experts and the general public to inspect every detail of both surface and colour. The information that was recorded will become part of the holdings of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini and contribute to the preservation and dissemination envisaged by Vittorio Cini and his advisor Bernard Berenson.

Two of the paintings were part of the Polittico Griffoni and have already been reproduced as facsimiles on permanent display in the Museo della Città in Bologna.