Factum Arte is an art conservation company based in Madrid, Milan, and London. [1] Its commercial activity involves assisting contemporary artists to create technically difficult and innovative works of art. [2] It also seeks to promote the use of non-contact 3D digitisation technologies to record museum collections and historic monuments, especially in areas where these are at risk. [3] Since 2009, Factum Arte's non-profit cultural heritage projects have been carried out through the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation.
In 2014, Factum Arte completed the installation of an exact facsimile of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, near Howard Carter’s house. The facsimile, and its proximity to the original tomb, is intended to provoke a debate about preservation; [4] [5] as Factum Arte's Director, Adam Lowe, was said: "The tomb of Tutankhamun was built to last for eternity, but it wasn't built to be visited". [6]
Factum Arte has worked with institutions such as the British Museum in London, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, the Museo del Prado in Madrid, and the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt.
Factum Arte was founded in 2001 by the artists Adam Lowe, Manuel Franquelo, with Fernando Garcia-Guereta to facilitate the recording of the Tomb of Seti I and works with a number of artists including Marc Quinn and Anish Kapoor. [7] The Seti project involved the design and construction of 3D laser scanners, software, and photographic equipment to record the walls of the tomb at high-resolution. [8]
Factum Arte was founded in 2001 in order to facilitate the development of technology needed specifically for the recording of the Tomb of Seti I.[ citation needed ]
Factum Arte was commissioned by United Exhibits Group to make a 1:1 facsimile of the Tomb of Thutmose III in 2002. The facsimile was toured at exhibitions in various museums in the United States between November 2002 and December 2007. [9] In 2005 a second facsimile of the tomb was exhibited in Madrid, Edinburgh, and Basel titled Immortal Pharaoh: The Tomb of Thutmose III (Edinburgh) and The Tomb of Thutmose III: The Dark Hours of the Sun (Madrid and Basel). [10]
In 2012, the company presented its facsimile of the Tomb of Tutankhamun in Cairo. [11] [12] [13]
In 2014 the company installed the facsimile in the Valley of the Kings, beside Howard Carter's house. [14] [15] [16]
In November 2007, Factum Arte's facsimile of The Wedding Feast at Cana (1563), by Paolo Veronese, was presented by the Cini Foundation in the original location of the painting, the Andrea Palladio's refectory for the Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. [17] The original painting, commissioned in 1562, was plundered by the French Revolutionary Army of Napoleon in 1797 and sent to the Louvre Museum, where it hangs opposite the Mona Lisa. [18] The facsimile was commissioned in 2006 by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini and, following an agreement with the Louvre, Factum Arte's technicians were allowed to scan the painting at night. Corriere della Sera called the facsimile a "turning point in art". [17]
In 2010 the Cini Foundation commissioned the visualisation and manufacture of objects designed by the 18th century artist and antiquarian Giambattista Piranesi. The project was conceived by Adam Lowe, Michele De Lucchi, and John Wilton-Ely and was exhibited in the Cini Foundation on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore for the Venice Biennale. The objects were later toured for exhibitions in Madrid, Barcelona, and San Diego [19] [20]
In March–May 2014, Factum Arte exhibited the series at the Sir John Soane's Museum in London. Diverse Manieri: Piranesi, Fantasy and Excess aimed to explore the relationship between Sir John Soane and Piranesi. The objects were shown in the context of prints, drawings and books in Soane's library. [21] [22]
The manufacture of the objects involved a variety of methods including stereolithography, milling, fused deposition modelling, electro forming and electro plating, in addition to a host of moulding and casting technologies [23]
The 16 panels of the Polittico Griffoni once formed the altarpiece of the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna. It was considered one of the greatest altarpieces of the 15th Century Bolognese School. The panels were originally painted by Francesco del Cossa and Ercole De Roberti. The panels, removed in 1725, are now scattered in various museums in Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, the Netherlands, and the Vatican City. [24]
Using the Lucida 3D scanner, designed by Manuel Franquelo, Factum Arte and the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation collaborated with San Petronio Basilica to record, reproduce and reunite the panels as a facsimile in their original location. [24] [25]
Factum Arte has developed a number technologies in order to better facilitate the recording and production of objects.
The Lucida 3D Laser Scanner is capable of scanning surface relief, without contact, and with a depth of field of 2.5 cm at resolution of 100 microns. [26] The scanner is designed to be portable, and easy to set up and operate; with the aim to make the recording of objects and sites more feasible and accessible for both individuals and institutions. The company's cement printer, designed by engineer Dwight Perry, aims to print a 3 dimensional concrete structure directly from CAD files. A prototype was displayed at the GENESIS exhibition, about genetics, at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht in 2007. In 2009 the artist Anish Kapoor utilized a second prototype of the printer as an investigation into new ways of developing form. Kapoor used the results of his experimentation as a piece, entitled "Greyman Cries, Shaman Dies, Billowing Smoke, Beauty Evoked", in his solo exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. Kapoor's vision and process was detailed in a book Unconformity and Entropy, published by Turner Books in 2010 - ISBN 978-8475068916. [27] The cement printer is currently undergoing development at Factum Arte's workshop in Madrid.
In 2013, when referring to the facsimile of the Tomb of Tutankhamun and the facsimile of the caves at Lascaux, historian Tom Holland voiced criticism of the idea of creating "fakes" as a means to protect the originals:
In our society, there is a huge premium set on authenticity. Clearly, were there not a difference between the copy and the original, it wouldn't matter – you could make a replica and trash the original. Tutankhamun and Lascaux were created by people who believed in the world of the spirits, the dead, and the supernatural. You don't have to believe in a god or gods to feel a place is consecrated and has a particular quality that cannot be reproduced. [28]
Howard Carter was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings.
Tutankhamun, Tutankhamon or Tutankhamen, also known as Tutankhaten, was the antepenultimate pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. His death marked the cessation of the dynasty's royal line.
Nefertiti was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for their radical overhaul of state religious policy, in which they promoted the earliest known form of monotheism, Atenism, centered on the sun disc and its direct connection to the royal household. With her husband, she reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of ancient Egyptian history. After her husband's death, some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled briefly as the female king known by the throne name, Neferneferuaten and before the ascension of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate. If Nefertiti did rule as Pharaoh, her reign was marked by the fall of Amarna and relocation of the capital back to the traditional city of Thebes.
The tomb of Tutankhamun, also known by its tomb number, KV62, is the burial place of Tutankhamun, a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb consists of four chambers and an entrance staircase and corridor. It is smaller and less extensively decorated than other Egyptian royal tombs of its time, and it probably originated as a tomb for a non-royal individual that was adapted for Tutankhamun's use after his premature death. Like other pharaohs, Tutankhamun was buried with a wide variety of funerary objects and personal possessions, such as coffins, furniture, clothing and jewelry, though in the unusually limited space these goods had to be densely packed. Robbers entered the tomb twice in the years immediately following the burial, but Tutankhamun's mummy and most of the burial goods remained intact. The tomb's low position, dug into the floor of the valley, allowed its entrance to be hidden by debris deposited by flooding and tomb construction. Thus, unlike other tombs in the valley, it was not stripped of its valuables during the Third Intermediate Period.
The New Kingdom, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire, was the ancient Egyptian nation between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC. This period of ancient Egyptian history covers the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties. Through radiocarbon dating, the establishment of the New Kingdom has been placed between 1570 BC and 1544 BC. The New Kingdom followed the Second Intermediate Period and was succeeded by the Third Intermediate Period. It was the most prosperous time for the Egyptian people and marked the peak of Egypt's power.
Manuel Franquelo is a Spanish painter and mixed media sculptor.
Tomb KV17, located in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, is the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I of the Nineteenth Dynasty. It is also known by the names "Belzoni's tomb", "the Tomb of Apis", and "the Tomb of Psammis, son of Nechois". It is one of the most decorated tombs in the valley, and is one of the largest and deepest tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It was uncovered by Italian archaeologist and explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni on 16 October 1817.
Tomb WV22, also known as KV22, was the burial place of Amenhotep III, a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, in the western arm of the Valley of the Kings. The tomb is unique in that it has two subsidiary burial chambers for the pharaoh's wives Tiye and Sitamen. It was officially discovered in August 1799 by Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage, engineers with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt but had probably been open for some time. The tomb was first excavated in the early 1900s by Theodore M. Davis; the details of this are lost. The first documented clearance was carried out by Howard Carter in 1915. Since 1989, a Japanese team from Waseda University led by Sakuji Yoshimura and Jiro Kondo has excavated and conserved the tomb. The sarcophagus is missing from the tomb. The tomb's layout and decoration follow the tombs of the king's predecessors, Amenhotep II (KV35) and Thutmose IV (KV43); however, the decoration is much finer in quality. Several images of the pharaoh's head have been cut out and can be seen today in the Louvre.
3D scanning is the process of analyzing a real-world object or environment to collect three dimensional data of its shape and possibly its appearance. The collected data can then be used to construct digital 3D models.
The Valley of the Kings, also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings, is an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty, rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and powerful nobles under the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt.
Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor, is a British-Indian sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school The Doon School, before moving to the UK to begin his art training at Hornsey College of Art and, later, Chelsea School of Art and Design.
Exhibitions of artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun have been held at museums in several countries, notably the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, United States, Canada, Japan, and France.
A facsimile is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of reproduction by attempting to replicate the source as accurately as possible in scale, color, condition, and other material qualities. For books and manuscripts, this also entails a complete copy of all pages; hence, an incomplete copy is a "partial facsimile". Facsimiles are sometimes used by scholars to research a source that they do not have access to otherwise, and by museums and archives for media preservation and conservation. Many are sold commercially, often accompanied by a volume of commentary. They may be produced in limited editions, typically of 500–2,000 copies, and cost the equivalent of a few thousand United States dollars. The term "fax" is a shortened form of "facsimile" though most faxes are not reproductions of the quality expected in a true facsimile.
Christopher Piers Arthur Wardle was a British artist, musician and art factotum. Born in Beckenham, he lived in Southwark, London, UK and died in Clyst Hydon, Devon, UK.
This page list topics related to ancient Egypt.
The Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre is a department of the Louvre that is responsible for artifacts from the Nile civilizations which date from 4,000 BC to the 4th century. The collection, comprising over 50,000 pieces, is among the world's largest, overviews Egyptian life spanning Ancient Egypt, the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, Coptic art, and the Roman, Ptolemaic, and Byzantine periods.
The mask of Tutankhamun is a gold funerary mask of the 18th-dynasty ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun. After being buried for over 3,000 years, it was excavated by Howard Carter in 1925 from tomb KV62 in the Valley of the Kings. It has been displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo from 1925 to present. The death mask is one of the best-known works of art in the world and a prominent symbol of ancient Egypt.
Artec 3D is a developer and manufacturer of 3D scanning hardware and software. The company is headquartered in Luxembourg, with offices also in the United States, China (Shanghai) and Montenegro (Bar). Artec 3D's products and services are used in various industries, including engineering, healthcare, media and design, entertainment, education, fashion and historic preservation. In 2013, Artec 3D launched an automated full-body 3D scanning system, Shapify.me, that creates 3D portraits called “Shapies.”
Myriam Seco Álvarez is a Spanish archaeologist and Egyptologist. A distinguished authority in those fields, the author of several reference books, and responsible for excavations in the Middle East and Egypt, she has launched and directed important archaeological projects, including the excavation and restoration of the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Thutmose III. The so-called "Spanish Indiana Jones", she has had a prolific professional career and a broad international presence.
The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 by excavators led by the Egyptologist Howard Carter, more than 3,300 years after Tutankhamun's death and burial. Whereas the tombs of most pharaohs were plundered by graverobbers in ancient times, Tutankhamun's tomb was hidden by debris for most of its existence and therefore not extensively robbed. It thus became the first known largely intact royal burial from ancient Egypt.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) "Diverse Manieri Press Release", December 2013