Carpaccio’s Two Venetian Ladies
Factum Foundation worked on a divided panel painting by Carpaccio – the aim is to reunify the panels and analyse the missing area. The painting known as Two Venetian Ladies (c. 1490), located at the Museo Correr in Venice, is the lower half of a larger panel that was cut down, possibly on each side and in the middle. The upper half Hunting on the Lagoon, is at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California.
[Left] Two Venetian Ladies, Museo Correr, Venice – [Right ] Hunting in the Lagoon, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
The project that has been discussed with both institutions requires high-resolution 3D and colour recording of each panel. This data will then be used in order to reunite the complete panel as a facsimile allowing both institutions to contextualise their fragments. The digital data obtained from each panel will be given to each institution, and the facsimile(s) could be part of temporary exhibitions or permanent installations.
The recording of the panel at the Getty Museum is currently under discussion, while the panel at the Museo Correr was recorded in November 2020 with the assistance of Arteria. The panel was taken out of its protective case and placed on an easel to be recorded using the Lucida 3D Scanner and composite photography.
Guendalina Damone operating the Lucida 3D Scanner on the Museo Correr panel © Ferdinand Saumarez Smith for Factum Foundation
[Left] Setting up the Lucida 3D Scanner while the Artería team places the panel on the easel – [Right] The Lucida 3D Scanner recording the surface © Ferdinand Saumarez Smith for Factum Foundation
