Facsimiles and recreations are able to significantly change the way we think about exhibition content and design, especially when the original artworks cannot travel.
Guercino’s St Chrysogonus in Glory is today on the ceiling of the Long Gallery at Lancaster House, in London, for which it was purchased in the 19th century. It stands 17 meters above the ground, surrounded by lantern windows. It was recorded using composite colour photography to generate a file of 400 dpi at 1:1. The colour was then printed onto a gesso-coated canvas and varnished.
Gabriel Scarpa recording the colour. The painting stands 17m above the ground, installed on the ceiling of the Long Gallery © Factum Foundation
Exhibition view ‘Guercino. L’era Ludovisi’ © Alberto Novelli | Scuderie del Quirinale
The same process was applied to the vast Trinity by Guido Reni, which hangs on the main altar of the Chiesa della Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini in Rome and became part of the exhibition. The recreation will remain in the church while the original is on display at the Scuderie del Quirinale.
Factum Foundation’s recreation of Guido Reni’s Trinity installed on the altar © Adam Lowe
The Burial and Glory of St Petronilla presented a different challenge. This 7m-tall painting hangs in the Musei Capitolini and cannot be moved. The lower part of the painting was recorded in 3D using the Lucida Laser Scanner and the colour was captured at a resolution of 500dpi at 1:1. To make the facsimile, the painting was divided into 20 sections. The area recorded with the Lucida was rematerialised as an exact copy of the surface and moulds were made from the elevated prints (a technology developed by Canon Production Printing, with whom Factum has collaborated since 2018). From these moulds, the surface was rematerialised in gesso ready for printing. Once the 20 sections were printed and varnished, they were spliced together and fixed to a rigid support. All the joins are retouched by hand before the final varnish is applied.
Final touches © Oak Taylor-Smith | Factum Foundation
© Scuderie del Quirinale
The recreation of Guercino’s Burial and Glory of St Petronilla installed in the exhibition © Adam Lowe
