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Participation in the Digital Michelangelo Project

February 1999 - Florence, Italy

In February 1999, a team of researchers from the Visual Information Technology group of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Ottawa participated in the Digital Michelangelo Project in Florence, Italy. The Digital Michelangelo project, initiated by Prof. Marc Levoy of Stanford University, was a one-year project for the creation of digital models of Michelangelo sculptures.

Figure 1: The NRC team in Florence, composed (from left to right) of Guy Godin, J.-Angelo Beraldin and Luc Cournoyer, acquired high-resolution 3D images on seven Michelangelo sculptures; among these sculptures was the celebrated David. Click on the image for a larger view

The Stanford project team invited the NRC group to deploy its high-resolution 3D laser scanning technology in Florence in order to complement the project's other 3D laser scanning systems. The unique capabilities of the NRC system allowed the capture of very fine details of the tool marks on Michelangelo sculptures.

The goal of the NRC participation was to provide high-resolution views of selected patches on different sculptures. The patches were selected to represent a variety of types of tool marks, marble types and surface polishing.

The NRC team in Florence acquired high-resolution 3D images on seven Michelangelo sculptures. Among these sculptures was the celebrated David, as well as four of the unfinished sculptures (three Slaves and the St. Matthew), all located in the Galleria Dell'Accademia. The other two sculptures scanned, Night and Day , are located in the New Sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo.

For this project we brought our high-resolution auto-synchronized laser range scanner, normally used on a three-axis translation system. On the compact portable configuration, the sensor head is simply attached to a computer controlled turntable mounted on a sturdy tripod. This camera normally uses a polychromatic laser for simultaneous color and range measurement. In the case of the Michelangelo sculptures, since the primary focus for measurement was the high-resolution surface shape, only a single laser wavelength (red) was used.

Figure 2: The auto-synchronized High-Resolution Laser Scanner in the NRC laboratory in Ottawa Click on the image for a larger view

Figure 3: The auto-synchronized Laser Scanner mounted on a tripod at the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence Click on the image for a larger view

More than 50 patches on 7 different sculptures were acquired, in the Galleria dell'Accademia and the Sagrestia Nuova, San Lorenzo. Each patch was digitized at a lateral resolution of 50 microns, and an estimated depth precision of less than 10 microns, over areas of about 50mm x 50mm. It should be noted that, because of the translucent and heterogeneous nature of marble, signal acquired on marble tends to be noisier than on opaque surfaces. As part of the follow-up to the scans, we are analyzing these effects, in collaboration with the Stanford University researchers. (see Godin et al, 2001, An Assessment of Laser Range Measurement of Marble Surfaces, NRC 44210).

The snapshots in these pages illustrate the scans by computing a shaded representation of the measured surface. It is important to note that the 2-D image resolution of the renderings shown in these pages is much less than that of the original 3-D data.

Sample 3D Scans

Galleria dell'Accademia
The Unfinished Sculptures

In addition to the David, the Galleria dell'Academia contains 6 sculptures by Michelangelo at different levels of completion. Thus, they provided a large variety of tool marks and surface finishes of high interest to this project. We scanned a number of areas representative of the different tools and techniques used and of the condition of the marble on four of these sculptures (known as St-Matthew, Bearded Slave, Awakening Slave, and Atlas). Shaded views of some typical 50mm X 50mm patches are shown below.

Figures 4, 5, 6, 7: Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures known as St-Matthew, Bearded Slave, Awakening Slave, and Atlas respectively.
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Figure 8: Shaded view of a typical 50mm X 50mm patch.
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Figure 9: Shaded view of a typical 50mm X 50mm patch.
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Figure 10: Shaded view of a typical 50mm X 50mm patch.
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Figure 11: Shaded view of a typical 50mm X 50mm patch.
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Figure 12: Shaded view of a typical 50mm X 50mm patch.
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Figure 13: Shaded view of a typical 50mm X 50mm patch.
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