Facsimiles for ‘Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea’
Facsimiles have the power of expanding the boundaries of exhibition display when the originals can’t travel, in addition to providing new ways to study, disseminate and display cultural heritage. For the exhibition ‘Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea’, organised by Fondazione Prada, Factum Arte and Factum Foundation worked on two facsimiles of anatomy-themed paintings: Rembrandt’s ‘The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deijman’ (1656) from the Amsterdam Museum, and Hieronymous Bosch’s ‘The Extraction of the Stone of Madness’ (1501 – 1505) from the Museo del Prado.
Exhibition view of “Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea” – Fondazione Prada, Venice 23 April – 27 November 2022 | Photo: Marco Cappelletti, Courtesy: Fondazione Prada
Exhibition view of “Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea” – Fondazione Prada, Venice 23 April – 27 November 2022 | Photo: Marco Cappelletti, Courtesy: Fondazione Prada
‘Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea’ brings together documents, drawings, paintings, prints and books challenged by the words of fiction writers and a collection of interviews with neuroscientists, psychologists, neurolinguists and philosophers from all over the world.
A team from Factum Foundation recorded both paintings using the Lucida 3D Scanner and composite photography inside the two museums, ensuring that the surface and colour of the facsimiles would be accurate.
After printing the surface in 3D using elevated printing technology, the textured surface of each painting was moulded using liquid silicone and cast in a specially prepared acrylic gesso mix. These thin, flexible ‘skins’, which are fixed to a canvas or a backing panel in a process that is similar to re-lining a painting, form the base surface of a facsimile. The colour of each painting was printed on the surface separately in perfect registration, using Factum’s custom flatbed inkjet printer. Multiple layers of over-printing ensure that the tone and hue of each colour are exact.
