Visualising Lucida data
Colour data captured with high-resolution panoramic photography is 'mapped’ onto renders of the processed 3D data to create a ‘digital passport’ for an artwork that fully describes its surface condition at a specific point in time. In the form of layered browsers – like the one above showing Fra Angelico's Annunciation (Prado Museum, Madrid) – 'digital passports' constitute a major output for the Lucida data. The browsers enable anyone with internet access to visualise and compare different types of data with ease – from 3D to colour to infrared images.
Renders of Lucida data can also be opened and manipulated in Photoshop or other common image editing softwares.
The second major output for high-resolution Lucida data are facsimiles; the quality of the Lucida data is particularly evident when 'rematerialised' texture is compared to the original surface. The 3D data can be outputted using 3D printing or CNC milling technologies to produce textured surfaces onto which colour data is later printed.
The recreation of the Renaissance altarpiece known as the Polittico Griffoni is an interesting example of how Lucida data is used to produce facsimiles. The sixteen surviving panels from the altarpiece were scanned with the Lucida and rematerialised using innovative 3D and colour printing techniques.
A 3D print of the texture of a panel from the Polittico Griffoni – the data was recorded with the Lucida 3D Scanner © Factum Foundation
A mould of the 3D print is used to cast the texture in gesso – an artist's material that results in much more beautiful surface texture © Factum Foundation
A facsimile panel of the Polittico Griffoni – the colour is printed on top of the 3D 'texture' © Factum Foundation
A finished facsimile panel from the Polittico Griffoni © Factum Foundation
Detail from a facsimile panel of the Polittico Griffoni – the importance of texture in a credible facsimile cannot be underestimated © Factum Foundation
In production: facsimile of the Polittico Griffoni altarpiece – individual facsimile panels are brought together © Factum Foundation
A very different project from 2018-19 is using Lucida 3D data of woodblocks carved by John Baptist Jackson (1701-1780) – an artist who breathed new life into the Renaissance technique known as chiaroscuro – to reproduce the prints themselves.
CNC milling Lucida data for a John Baptist Jackson woodblock © Factum Foundation
Recreating the woodcut using the CNC milled woodblock © Factum Foundation
