Following an unprecedented agreement between the Uffizi Gallery and Indiana University Bloomington, the Uffizi’s entire Greek and Roman sculpture collection will be digitized in 3D by 2020. The team at Indiana University’s Virtual World Heritage Library will create high-resolution 3D digital models of the collection’s nearly 1,260 works, which include sculptures, altars and tombs. Project costs will total approximately 600,000 USD, sustained entirely by Indiana University.
The Medici family began assembling the collection in the fifteenth century, and later additions were made by the House of Lorraine. Now dispersed across the Uffizi Gallery (320 works), Palazzo Pitti (120), the Boboli Gardens (120) and various museum deposits (around 700), the collection’s Greek masterpieces include the Medici Venus and the Dying Alexander, while the Sleeping Ariadne and Niobid group stand out among the Roman pieces.
The digitized collection will be used in both scholarly study and artistic preservation. Director of the Uffizi Eike Schmidt commented, “The systematic digital scanning of the ancient sculptures belonging to the Uffizi archaeological collection will open up new perspectives in research, in that it will allow digital reconstructions of original polychromy, integrations and virtual restoration with a precision that’s been heretofore unthinkable. This will allow global access and use {of these works}, and such a detail-oriented rendering of the collection will effectively function as a ‘backup copy’ of the ancient statues.”
Bernard Frischer, director of Indiana University’s Virtual World Heritage Laboratory and professor of informatics, will serve as project leader. Operational assistance will be provided by the Politecnico di Milano and the University of Florence.
Throughout the five-year project, Indiana University students in art history and informatics will have numerous educational opportunities in 3D data capture and the creation of interactive digital models. Some will have the opportunity to publish their models online in portals including the Italian Ministry of Culture’s internal database, the Uffizi’s website and the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory’s Digital Sculpture Project.
The project’s conclusion in 2020 will coincide with Indiana University’s bicentennial celebrations.
Images (from top to bottom): Dying Alexander, Medici Venus, Sleeping Ariadne
