Antonello da Messina's autograph version of Christ at the column, preserved at the Collegio Alberoni in Piacenza, has been the subject of a program of scientific analyzes non-invasive as part of the ECCEHOMO project - call 2017 of E-RIHS.it, the Italian node of the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (http://www.e-rihs.it/project/ecce-homo-iliazione-documentazione-del-painted-antonello-messina-from-the-collection-alberoni-piacenza/).
The project (http://vcg.isti.cnr.it/activities/eccehomo/) has involved four laboratories of excellence of the national scientific network specialized in applications for cultural heritage. The CNR-IFAC of Florence carried out analyzes with visible, near-infrared and ultraviolet light to characterize the eventual presence of preparatory drawings, identify the original pictorial materials and highlight the retouching of old restorations; the INFN-CHNet of Florence performed a mapping using X-ray induced fluorescence to characterize pictorial materials; the INFN-CHNet of Bologna conducted the tomography to identify the galleries produced by xylophagous insects and to verify the state of conservation of the wooden support; and the CNR-ISTI of Pisa developed both a 3D model of the artwork for the knowledge of its geometric data and a system to integrate and display the data obtained from the different analyzes on the 3D model.
The most innovative aspect of this research is the integration of 2D and 3D data in a single digital reconstruction. A digital replica of the artwork was obtained by reporting all the scientific data in a common reference space, which can be interactively explored in-depth. Each level is enriched with the information acquired from the various diagnostic analyzes. An example of a system that integrates data from X-ray tomography and the 3D model to analyze the woodworm galleries present in the Ecce Homo table is visible at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cG0uR_h8VM&t=7s.
An interactive multimedia kiosk was created to make the data and information accessible to the general public (currently available on-site).
In essence, the project made it possible to create a support tool for monitoring and conservation of the artwork and experiment with a new model of museum documentation that combines the professional archive and scientific dissemination to the general public.
The results of the project were presented in the dedicated conference "ECCEHOMO Project E-RIHS.it: the results of the investigations", Piacenza November 28, 2019 (https://www.cnr.it/it/evento/16582/convegno-eccehomo-project-e-rihs-it-the-results-of-the-investigations) and published in the journal "Scientific Reports" of the "Nature" publishing group (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95212-2).
Contact person:
Eliana Siotto - Technical-scientific coordinator of the ECCHOMO E-RIHS.it project
Cnr - "Alessandro Faedo" Institute of Information Science and Technologies
Via G. Moruzzi, 1 56124 Pisa
e-mail: eliana.siotto@isti.cnr.it
telephone: 050.3152940
Focus