Re-creating the Colossus of Constantine

Factum Foundation has worked with the Musei Capitolini and Fondazione Prada on an ambitious project to recreate the large-scale sculpture of the Colossus of Constantine (313-324) for the exhibition ‘Recycling Beauty’ (November 17, 2022 – February 27, 2023), curated by Salvatore Settis.

The 13m-tall (42 feet) work, displayed inside the Cisterna at the Fondazione Prada, is the result of months of close collaboration between the 3D team at Factum Foundation and a team of experts under the supervision of Claudio Parisi Presicce, the Capitoline Superintendent of Cultural Heritage.

Recording the fragments and references

The Colossus of Constantine was an early 4th-century monumental statue depicting emperor Constantine the Great. It is believed a pagan statue was repurposed to celebrate Constantine’s reign and the recognition of Christianity as a legal religion within the empire. The statue was later broken and pillaged for bronze, before its re-discovery in the 15^th century following an excavation at the Basilica of Maxentius. Michelangelo placed and arranged the remaining marble fragments of the Colossus on display inside the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori (today part of the Musei Capitolini in Rome), including an additional right hand.

At the end of March 2022, Pedro Miró, Otto Lowe and Imran Khan travelled to the Musei Capitolini to record the ten fragments in high-resolution using photogrammetry and LiDAR. Some of the fragments were placed up against the walls of the courtyard, making their recording challenging. However, all data was implemented with great accuracy during the 3D modelling phase.

Another recording carried out by Osama Dawod acquired the data of an additional fragment from the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo. A gypsum copy of a statue of Emperor Claudius as Jupiter, inside the Ara Pacis Museum, was also recorded to be used as a reference for the general posing of the sculpture.

In the reconstruction, the ten fragments which were recorded and used were the head, the right arm, the right hand, the right knee, the right shin, a calf fragment, the right and left feet, the wrist and a chest fragment (the latter was recorded at the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo)

The high-resolution data and 3D models of each fragment were given to the museums responsible for the objects as part of the condition monitoring of the sculptures.

The LiDAR scanner recording the courtyard and some of the fragments © Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation

Pedro Miró and Imran Khan checking the data during the photogrammetry recording © Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation

Pedro Miró using close-range photogrammetry to record a fragment of the wrist © Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation

The fragments in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori © Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation

The fragments in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori © Otto Lowe for Factum Foundation

Making the 3D model

Over the course of several months Irene Gaumé, Factum Arte’s 3D sculptor, worked in close collaboration with the team of curators and experts at the Musei Capitolini in order to recreate the colossal statue’s shape, pose and the way the paludamentum (a type of cloak worn by generals) was draped on the body. Each fragment was 3D modelled and placed on a digital body created using statues in similar poses as references – such as Emperor Claudius as Jupiter from the Ara Pacis Museum, a seated Jupiter from the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg and a Hercules from the Museo Nazionale Romano.

The engineering team meanwhile was developing the overall inner structure and materials, working in tandem with the team at Fondazione Prada to ensure the sculpture would fit inside the spaces of the Cisterna and could be transported and assembled on site.