The Divinity School ceiling at the Bodleian Library, Oxford
Developed through ARCHiOx, a research and development collaboration between Factum Foundation and the Bodleian Libraries supported by The Helen Hamlyn Trust, the Divinity School Ceiling project was presented to the public for the first time.
Built between 1427 and 1488, the Divinity School is Oxford University’s oldest surviving purpose-built teaching room and is renowned for its elaborate Gothic fan vaulting, intricate stone carvings and hundreds of decorative bosses. Between October 2024 and February 2026, Factum Foundation worked alongside the Bodleian Library to record the entire ceiling in unprecedented detail, including all 455 carved bosses, using a combination of of LiDAR and photogrammetry.
At Future Lab, visitors were able to watch live demonstrations of the scanner and examine three ceiling bosses and one pendant rematerialised at 1:1 scale, revealing details that are normally impossible to see from the floor and that are able to show the immensely skilful work of the stonemasons who made them.
Immersive digital tour of the Ipogeo dei Cristallini in Naples, Italy
Factum Foundation also unveiled an immersive digital journey into the Ipogeo dei Cristallini, one of the best-preserved Greek burial complexes in the Mediterranean. Hidden ten metres beneath the streets of Naples’ Rione Sanità, the hypogeum dates to the late fourth and third centuries BCE and preserves exceptional Hellenistic painting, polychrome sculpture and funerary architecture.
Following an extensive recording campaign in 2024 using LiDAR, close-range photogrammetry, panoramic composite photography and high-resolution scanning with the Selene Photometric Stereo Scanner, Factum Foundation created a comprehensive 3D model of the site. Visitors were able to explore the tombs through an interactive digital platform, navigating the underground complex with a gaming controller, examining frescoes and artefacts in detail, and adjusting virtual lighting to reveal subtle surface characteristics and evidence of conservation. Additional tablet-based applications will present further digital outputs, including augmented visualisations of objects from the hypogeum.
A 1:1 rematerialisation of part of a burial chamber, centred on the striking head of Medusa, demonstrated how digital recording can be translated back into physical form. The replica was CNC-milled in polyurethane foam from the 3D data, while the Medusa head was cast in artificial stone reinforced with acrylic resin and fibreglass. Its original polychromy has been recreated through a combination of digital printing and hand painting by Factum Foundation’s specialist conservators.
Click to access the web version of the digital tour
Revealing a hidden portrait of Antonietta Gonzales
In collaboration with Norfolk Reclamation, Factum Foundation presented the latest research into a painting that conceals a remarkable hidden history. Beneath the surface of a Madonna and Child traditionally attributed to Bernardino Luini, lies a portrait of Antonietta Gonzales, a young girl with hypertrichosis whose likeness circulated through the courts of Renaissance Europe.
X-ray and infrared imaging commissioned in 2020 first revealed the concealed portrait. In 2026, Factum Foundation added high-resolution Lucida 3D scanning, allowing these complementary datasets to be brought together and the painting’s layered history to be explored in unprecedented detail.
Throughout Future Lab, visitors were able to watch live demonstrations of the Lucida 3D Scanner and the Selene Photometric Stereo System. The display included a facsimile of the painting, an elevated print of the canvas surface with its texture amplified five times, X-ray and multispectral imaging outputs, and interactive digital viewers that allow visitors to compare the different datasets and uncover the hidden portrait layer by layer.
